The Nessie Ventures, Book 2:The Werewolf's Imprint
by Jumpingjoy22
Summary: Sequel to the Nessie Ventures, Book 1: The Witch Apprentice. Nessie is finally free but she's got a lot of catching up to do and a whole new surprise waiting for her. Sage loves her boyfriend but she has a feeling that there is a "wolf-ish" side to him. And Christa is getting caught up in her own love triangle..all the while somebody is watching them all as disaster enfolds. R&R!
1. Chapter 1

For any new readers, this is my sequel to my other story The Nessie Ventures, Book 1: The Witch Apprentice. YOU NEED TO READ THE FIRST BOOK TO UNDERSTAND THE SECOND!

**Chapter 1: Don't Bring Me Down**

_Renesmee_

My eyes fluttered open to another groggy morning in my home prison. I groaned and shoved my face into my pillow and I tried desperately to go back into my dreams where I had some freedom. Hopefully it wouldn't be another nightmare like the ones I've been having for the past couple of days…

…_I wake up in a prison cell, lying on an uncomfortable bed. The floors are made of muddy concrete and the walls and ceiling are made of cold, hard stone. The bed is unusual because I can see visible bed bugs crawling all over the bed. The bed bugs don't touch me but I still freak out and jump off the bed. As I fall off the bed I bang my head against a tarnished, wooden nightstand._

_I turn around and try looking through the drawers of the nightstand but they're empty; instead on top of the nightstand lays a hand mirror. I look into the mirror and it's a perfect reflection of myself now, but when I try to pick the mirror it shatters into large pieces at my touch. I then try to put the pieces back together but when I do the mirror fogs up and I can't even see my reflection anymore._

_I'm left utterly bemused at the mirror incident when he walks in. Or she walks in. The person always changes; most of the time its Victor or Natalia but sometimes I get Tom. Anyway, right now Victor has walked in out of nowhere into my tiny jail cell and of course he's not smiling. He looks at me in a despicable way before he saunters over to sit beside me. Once next to me he whispers something in my ear that I can't hear because his words are incoherent to me. But I don't have time to figure out what he means because he then pules out a knife and aims to stab me…_

…And then I wake up.

And the cycle repeats again and again until I finally decide to wake up.

I sit myself up on my bed and watch the gray clouds outside my window drift across the sky so I can collect my thoughts. I sigh and breathe in the morning air before walking over to my walk-in closet.

I pull out the first two clothing items (which are a pair of jeans and a buttoned red blouse) and quickly change. I then proceed my regular morning with brushing my teeth and hair in the bathroom, and eating a hearty bowl of honey-nut Cheerios in the dining room.

I can tell my parents aren't home from the absence of noisy chatter and clatter and the lack of life (no pun intended) in the house besides myself. When my parents aren't home I just have to wait for Jacob to come and watch over me.

Usually you wouldn't leave a grounded kid home alone but I know better than to try and pull anything funny. They've got me outnumbered eight to one (plus a few extra wolves and one of those eight are a mind reader).

I had some freedom though. I was still allowed to hunt with Jacob and outsiders such as Christa and Charlie could come and visit. My parents had dropped the No Interaction Law after a week and other family members were allowed to talk to me freely. Aunt Rosie and Alice and a couple others came by almost everyday to save me from the depths of boredom.

I checked the calendar to see how many days left I had of my imprisonment. I was grounded February 2nd and today was… March 2nd. I was only grounded a month. Which means…

I'm not grounded anymore.

"Woohoo!" I shouted, "I'm a free woman! Finally! Woohoo!"

I cheered and shouted some more and even got on top of the table and started to dance. But then it hit me.

No I mean it really hit me.

A paper airplane came soaring through the open window almost majestically and crashed right into my head and landed on the floor. I jumped off the table and picked up the plane from the ground and studied how only a supreme being could make such a well crafted paper airplane. I unfolded the paper airplane to find a note.

_Dear Nessie,_

_I knew you would react like this so I would like to tell you that you were grounded at twelve o' nine p.m. (western standard time) on February 2__nd__. Right now it is eight o' four a.m. on March 2__nd__. You still have four hours, five minutes, and thirty-three seconds left to be grounded._

_Sincerely,_

_Someone you know_

"They have to be so dang punctual," I grumbled to myself.

"Hello Renesmee," My Aunt Rosie sang as she swung open the front door and danced gracefully into the cottage. And it was so not a coincidence that Aunt Rosie arrives at the times when I get suspicious of her husband throwing paper airplanes into my room…incessantly…

"Hey Aunt Rosie," I asked in my most polite voice, "Do you want to end my grounding just a couple hours early?"

"Unfortunately that's not up to me," she replied.

"My parents will say no."

"Then there's not much I can do, is there?"

"Don't you think this punishment has been just a tad bit too harsh?"

"Hhhmm," Rosalie hummed and started to gently stroke my hair, "You did go behind our backs and put yourself and possibly Christa in serious danger…but maybe I would have made the punishment three weeks long and not a whole month. At least those awful gashes on your leg and your broken ribs have healed."

"I guess so…so why are you here? Is it make-up or dress-up this time?"

"I actually came here to deliver good news." Aunt Rosie then slipped her hand into the back pocket of her designer jeans and pulled out a small, cream-colored envelope.

"It's a wedding invite," She said then handed me the envelope.

"What?" I asked incredulously while using my index finger to break the seal of the letter. I pulled out the letter and my jaw nearly dropped at the words inside.

_You are cordially invited _

_to attend the wedding ceremony of _

_Charlie Swan_

_And _

_Sue Clearwater_

_On the second of May_

_Two-thousand and twelve_

_At three o' clock in the afternoon _

_Reception to follow_

_At the Swan House_

_93 Westfield Ave._

_Forks, Washington_

I look up at Aunt Rosie.

"Congratulations," Aunt Rosie says, "You're going to be a flowergirl!"

* * *

_Sage_

He's late.

Again.

Not that I'm surprised. He's usually late to all our recent dates. He's even late to the dates he sets up for us like today when he begged me all last night over the phone to come at eight in the morning to La Push beach for a "surprise." Well it better be a good surprise if he's already twenty-five minutes late…

I rock the piece of driftwood I'm sitting on back and forth and start taking my anger out by kicking the feeble sand. Soon enough the thin piece of driftwood breaks from under me and it drops me into the muddy, damp sand. I look for somewhere else to sit and find another piece of driftwood a couple yards away.

Why is he always late? Better yet why is he always late and never has a good reason for being late. _"Oh Jacob needed a favor from me"…_What favor?_…"I sprained my ankle on the way here"…_So why are you walking perfectly fine?..._"I was running through the woods and a bear found me"…_So how are you still alive?

One would say that Seth is lying if there are so many times he's late and there's always a different excuse for being late. Ellie suggests that he might be cheating on me, but Christa says that maybe he's having a tough time with something that he's not telling me about. I hope the latter (Christa) is right because, despite all the stories and never being on time, I don't think Seth would ever cheat on me or consistently tell me lies. And it hurts what I'm about to do…

"Hey Sage!"

Speak of the Devil.

I turn around and there's Prince Charming running full speed down the beach and by the time I registered him running he was just a few yards from me. Before I can protest, he picks me up and twirls me around in his most gentle bone-crushing hug. He puts me down and all I can do is give him my most intent stare.

"I know. I know," Seth says as he picks up me mood, "I know how you feel and I know that you're mad that I'm always late to our dates and I know it's never because of a good reason. But you have to bear with me because it's kind of complicated and I'll tell you more about it one day. But for right now the reason I'm late is because-"

"Shush," I say cutting him off and putting a hand over his mouth.

"I don't want to hear it, okay?" Seth nods at my question and I take my hand away from his face, buts of course he takes my hand back and he holds my hand in his.

"Look Seth you're always so busy and I get that, but then maybe it isn't a good idea for…for…," I trail off without a conclusion.

"For…what?" Seth asks and I can already see his eyes going wide.

"For…us…to stop going on dates." I bite my lip and look down so I don't have to meet his eyes.

"You mean for us to just stop dating?" Seth asks and I can already hear his voice cracking.

"If it's for the best then I think we should take a break from going out. I still love you but I things just aren't the same as they were and so maybe we should be friends until you can sort things out." I slip my hand out from Seth's.

"You want to break up?"

"Not for good but just for now. I'm sorry."

"Can you look at me?"

I don't dare let my head move up to face him because I'm afraid of his expression. Yet Seth puts his hand under my chin and pulls my head up to face him. His expression isn't as bad as I thought-I mean he still looks like he's on the brink of tears but I guess he was also expecting me to react like this.

"I know I'm not the best boyfriend in the world right now, but I do love you and I want to make this work. For the both of us. I understand that you're upset and you have every right to be upset but I can't let you go even if it is for a little while. You're still very important to me and I would put you before all else. We also don't have to keep going on dates we can just hang out at my house or yours or wherever. We can take things slower. Just give me another chance."

"Oh I don't know…"

"Besides, who's going to be at the wedding with me if we break up?"

My breath hitched. "W-w-wedding? What wedding?"

"That's part of the surprise," Seth explained, "My mom's getting married, er, re-married. I'm one of the groomsmen and if my mother doesn't have a lot of bridesmaids, she said you could be one if you wanted to. My mom really likes you I think."

"What? Really? I didn't know, but congratulations."

"It'll be a lonely wedding for me without you." Seth put out his hand as an invitation for me to take it.

"Fine," I agreed and took his hand, "But if things aren't working well after the wedding then we're taking a break."

"Thank you so much. I won't let you down again!" Seth then pulled me into another gentle hug before I could protest for a long couple of minutes.

"But could you at least be a little bit more punctual on time if you don't mind? Please?" I pleaded while squirming out of Seth's hug.

"Of course," Seth obliged, "Now time for the other part of the surprise."

"What?" I asked as he tugged my hand and lead me into the direction of the woods…

* * *

_Christa_

"Where is he?" I asked.

"Who?" Ellie asked.

"Jericho, he needs to fix something for me."

Note to self, never let Jericho near electronics again. I let Jericho use my computer for five minutes and the idiot spills diet Coke on the keyboard and now it won't work. I told the idiot that he either has to somehow fix the keyboard or he has to replace it, and then he just ran away!

"Oh! Jericho," Ellie said, "I saw him run into the kitchen."

"Thanks," I said then made my to the kitchen. I was just about to enter the kitchen when Dominic appeared out of nowhere and stood in front of the kitchen door, blocking my way.

After the battle with Victor, we had taken Dominic in as prisoner and then a couple days later we had let him join our little ragtag gang of mystical beings. Like Jericho, Dominic didn't really like fighting and Victor but Victor had forced him to be a wizard and to join him in his battle against us. Dominic would have abandoned Victor but Dominic is still a very young wizard and not as strong as someone like Jericho, so if Dominic ever left Victor then Victor could easily find Dominic again and kill him.

Dominic apologized to Sage and Ellie for how he attacked them on the battlefield and even thanked us for killing Victor. Though of course we were still wary of Dominic and we kept him only in the house with at least one of us. So what Dominic was about to say might have erased some suspicion I had about him.

"Hey Christa, how you doing?" Dominic greeted.

"Fine, do you mind moving over so I can get into the kitchen?"

"I heard about what Jericho did." I deadpanned.

"So I was wondering, you know I'm not too good at fixing things, but I'll replace the keyboard for Jericho if you like.

I raised an eyebrow "Seriously?"

"Oh sure I mean a computer keyboard isn't that expensive."

"Well-"

"Wait!" Screamed a voice in the kitchen. Just then Jericho came rushing out of the kitchen so fast that he almost hit Dominic on the back with the door.

"Don't worry, I'll fix the keyboard. It's only a little cleaning up to do anyway."

Both Dominic and me raised our eyebrows.

"Don't worry Dominic I'll really fix it. You don't have to buy anything."

"Oh…okay," Dominic mumbled confusedly before walking out of the room.

Jericho then looked at me and asked, "What?"

"Do you have a personality crisis or something?"

* * *

**Author's Note: Oh it's a beautiful new chapter to a new sequel! Yay! By the way, the dream Nessie has in the beginning is only meant to show her feelings it's nothing prophetic…or is it? Also, the address on the wedding invite isn't Charlie's real address. Since they don't say where he lives in neither the book nor the movie I made the address up. **

**Also update days have moved from Monday to Wednesday. I wanted it to be Friday but I'm probably going to be busy on the weekends during the summer so the middle of the week best fits my schedule and typically other people's schedules. Next chapter update will be this Wednesday and not the next one.**

**Thanks for reading and please do the one thing I love most: REVIEW!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight! I only own the characters I made up! I'm also sorry for any grammar mistakes!**


	2. Sights and Promises

**Chapter Two: Sights and Promises**

_Bella_

My fingers skim over the bindings of the paperback and hardcover books on the shelves as I try to find a noteworthy book to read. In the little over five years that I've lived here, I've only read a third of the books from the grand bookcase in the living room of my own cottage. Which is surprising since in my earlier youth, books were my only companions. I've got a lot of reading to do if I'm ever going to catch up with the rest of the Cullens.

This opposed to Renesmee, who claims to have read every single book on the bookshelf. Due to me and Edward keeping Renesmee sheltered in the cottage for nearly a month, she's had a lot of free time and thankfully she's been using it for a good purpose like reading. Whenever I point to one of the books on the shelf she can give me a brief summary of the book just by looking at the title.

My fingers stop skimming over the books when I reach a familiar title: _To Kill A Mockingbird._ I remember Renesmee chattering about this book for a couple of nights while she read it.

I can tell she loves the book because I sometimes see her rereading it during the night and she talks about it the most of all the books she's read. Now that I think of it, Renesmee is to _To Kill A Mockingbird _as I am to _Wuthering Hei_-

_Ring, ring, ring! Ring, ring, ring! Ring, ring, ring!_

The sound of Renesmee's alarm clock startles me out of my pondering and my head whips to the direction of the hall. The series of ringing is followed by the whoop of an overjoyed girl.

"Yeesssss! It's twelve o' nine! Now I'm a free woman!"

Just then Renesmee comes speeding as fast as she can down the hallway and goes slamming out the front door, almost knocking the door off its hinges. I settle the book down to go peak outside at Renesmee.

Renesmee seems to be making an exaggeration of her punishment by frolicking about on the dead grass in the little front yard we have and even hugging some of the trees.

"Oh nature never looked so beautiful!" Renesmee shouts. I roll my eyes and give a fake cough. Renesmee hears and turns around.

"Oh hello, Mother. I've never been so excited to be outside again," Renesmee says with a Cheshire-like grin

"Of course," I say nonchalantly, "Renesmee I need to talk to you about something important before you go prancing around."

Renesmee scurries inside and is at my side in moments. "Mom, what is it?"

I sigh and begin, "I know you were hunting for that vampire a certain amount of days while you were at Christa's, but how many days did you actually spend at Christa's?"

"Oh I spent plenty of days there," Renesmee answered, "I mean I wasn't completely chasing a vampire. I spent nearly all my time there. I only chased the vampire about one or two times a week."

I can't tell if Renesmee is telling the truth or she's trying to make me feel guilty for grounding her for a month so I ask, "So if I call up Christa right now, she'd agree with the fact that you were by he house nearly everyday?"

"Of course, she would definitely agree."

"Then in that case I have something I want to talk to you about." Renesmee's Cheshire grin fell.

"What do you need to talk about?"

"Well I wonder if you have a certain preference of Christa over your other friends and family."

"What does that mean?"

"Now look Renesmee I had this problem too when I was younger. I chose being with your father than I did mostly anyone else. I'm not saying you don't love your other friends and family but you are neglecting them a little by spending so much time with Christa."

"Are you going to limit my time with Christa then?"

"Yes, you are only allowed to visit her three days of the week at most. You must spend the rest of the week with others."

"But Mom-"

"Charlie and Sue are getting married! Maybe you want to help with the wedding?"

"Of course but they probably have a bunch of other people helping too."

"What about our cousins the Denalis?"

"They live in Alaska. Alaska! Even that's a bit too far for vampires."

"And what about some of us around the house? Like Carlisle and Rosalie and maybe even me and your father?"

"Well I love them and all and I like spending time with them, but now that I'm not cute and an adorable baby I don't think they want to spend some actual time with me until I'm as old as they are."

"That's nonsense! We love you and will always want to spend time with you no matter how old you are."

Renesmee just kept quiet and didn't say a word after that. I knew I wasn't getting far, but I did know someone who would strike a nerve in Renesmee.

"You know you and Jacob used to hang out all the time. Now I don't think you see him anymore and I think you're getting him really depressed."

"I love Jacob! I would never neglect him!" Renesmee shouted. So maybe I hit too big of a nerve.

"Still, you don't spend as much time as you used to with him. He's actually complaining a bit." The last part wasn't a complete lie considering Jacob used to persuade me not to let Renesmee go to Christa's house.

"But I-I uh…but I um…I'll see if we can do something this week." Renesmee stumbled. I smiled and patted her hair.

"Well you only have two more days with Christa this week because Christa just invited you over her house today. Aren't you lucky?"

Renesmee opened her mouth to say something but then closed it and instead she followed me out the door of our little cottage.

* * *

_Sage_

Once Seth had officially dragged me into the woods, he put a hand over my eyes to keep me from looking and had to push me as we walked.

"Can you give me a clue as to where we're going to?" I asked.

"It's in the woods," Seth replied.

"Well that narrows it down," I say with my best sarcastic voice that earns a chuckle from Seth.

Seth continues to lead me toward who-knows-where while I keep guessing and asking him things. Certain times I'll stumble over a rock or a tree branch and he'll have to catch me. The farther we go the more I feel like I'm tripping over something and I wonder if he's taking me to an abandoned mine or something.

"Do you really have to keep my eyes closed?" I complain.

"Of course! It's a surprise," Seth says for the nine-billionth time.

"I'd still be surprised if you told me."

"Not as surprised if I had showed you. Besides I couldn't explain it well enough."

"Well can't you cover my eyes when we're five minutes away from it?"

"Nope."

"You know for all I know you could just be leading me deep into the woods because you're going to murder me," I say nonchalantly with a half-hearted laugh. I expect Seth to laugh with me but he doesn't.

"You really think I would do that?" Seth asked in a surprisingly serious tone.

"No, I'm just joking," I say, "You usually laugh when other people joke like that to you. What's wrong?"

"It's nothing. I just thought that I intimidated or scared you."

"Psshh, you don't scare me. Sure you're a little buff and gangly but you're really just too cute and nice to hurt anyone. Besides, I know judo!" I say the last part in my best cocky tone that strangely resembles Seth's own overconfident voice. I hear Seth snort from behind me.

"Okay, thanks."

I can feel Seth start pushing me somewhere that's uphill and I start to get a little nervous. My stumbling becomes worse and I can barely walk so Seth-still having one hand over my eyes-picks me up with one arm and balances me with the other. I give a little yelp of surprise but it goes unnoticed and Seth carries me onward.

I'm actually surprised that Seth can carry me; then again I'm pretty light. I'm only maybe a little under a hundred and thirty pounds and I'm pretty short thanks to my curse. But wouldn't that still be heavy? I mean for someone like Seth. Maybe I'm lighter than most people, or maybe Seth is stronger than most people…

Seth and me have been walking in the woods for almost twenty minutes now and I'm starting to fall asleep in Seth's arms. Seth notices my body going limp and he jostles softly to keep me awake. A little while more and I start to see the daylight behind Seth's hands grow brighter. I can sense that there is an absence of threes around us and the wind feels more forceful against me.

The crunching of dead leaves and fallen branches had started to subdue under Seth's feet until I heard only light stomping. Seth's footsteps also started to get slower and slower and slower until…stop! Seth did not continue moving and he dropped me into a standing position.

"Okay," Seth spoke, "On the count of three I'm going to uncover your eyes."

I nodded.

"One."

"Two."

Three!"

Seth removed his hand and the sudden light beaming into my eyes blurred my vision. After a few moments my pupils contracted and my vision cleared up…only for me to jump right back into Seth's arms with my head ducked and covered.

"I had a feeling you would be a bit scared. I'm sorry," Seth mumbled.

"You had a feeling or you knew?" I grumbled through gritted teeth.

"It's not that bad when you get used to it. Just try turning around again."

Seth turns my stiff body around in his arms and I try turning back around but he holds me tight. My hands are pressing tightly into my face but I try peeking through them to get a better look at the view in front of me.

"I knew you were trying to kill me!"

Seth sighs. "No I'm not."

"Then why did you bring me to a mountain CLIFF?"

I move my hands out of my face to reveal the rest of the scene. From the elevated landform, you could see the vast expanse of the well-known evergreen forest and other different gently sloping mountains that the cliff did not fit in well with. When I turned around I could see the glittering ocean and approaching waves about to hit the shore.

"Hey Sage I'm going to something but I'm going to need you to do something for me okay?"

"What?"

"I'm going to need you to relax a little okay?" I stayed tense.

"I'm right here," Seth assured me and he grabbed me around the back to wrap his arms around my waist and pressed me against him for further emphasis. It takes me a couple of minutes but I learn to relax into Seth and lean against him.

"Good," Seth complimented, but I tensed up again and start to hyperventilate a little when he started moving us closer to the edge.

"Ssshhh," Seth says and traces circles on my back with his hand to sooth me.

"You'll be fine. I wouldn't do something as stupid as to let you fall off a cliff. I swear that you can trust me."

I relax a little at his softness and slowly start regaining the control over my breathing again. I try taking the view into better sights and it calms me a bit. Seth's patient and he hums a melody for me to help me relax my nervousness.

"Okay," I say a bit shaky, "Continue."

Seth is hesitant but he continues to move forward but at a slower pace this time. I breathe quietly through my nose and try to look at the ground. After a bit Seth stops and I look up and were about five feet from the edge. _Breath in. Breath out._

Seth then takes my arms with both hands and lifts them up so they are spread upward and are aligned with my shoulders. I'm about to ask what he's doing when a huge gust of wind comes by and it sends a rush of energy through my outspread arms and me.

"Doesn't it feel like you're flying up here?" Seth asks. Something in my head clicks and I turn around to give him my fiercest glare.

"Seth Peter Clearwater," I growl, "Did you bring me up to the tallest and most horrific cliff in all of Washington just so you could steal the most crappy and romantic scene in _Titanic_?"

Seth bellows into a cackling howling of laughter while I continue to scowl menacingly at him. If I didn't like the boy so much he would be dead by now.

"Well you always did like old romantic stuff," Seth says with a puff of laughter.

"I can't believe you!" I screech and drop both hands so they're by my side again.

"Calm down, I'm just joking. Look who can't take a joke now?" Seth answers, "I just thought I might add that last part in just to try it. I actually just really like the view up here. Did you know you can see parts of La Push beach from up here?"

"No," I said and Seth pointed northeast where I could see a bit of buildings and a rode.

"Do you see that blue house to the left?" Seth asked.

"Yep."

"I'm not sure if you can see it but four houses down from that blue house is mine."

"I can't see it," I reply, "Maybe…"

I move a little closer to the edge to get a better look. Huge mistake.

Seth takes hold of my hand that accidently causes me to jolt back and then forth as I try to pull away. When I look down I'm leaning right over the cliff and I'm so terrified that it accidentally shoots a flame through both of my hands.

"OWWWW!" Seth screeches behind me.

* * *

**Author's Note: *****Gasp* Yes I'm that mean to actually burn poor little Seth. But don't worry he'll be fine. Will he?**

**Anyway, speaking of Seth, I used Peter as Seth's middle name because, in the Twilight Saga's Official Illustrated Guide, it shows the family trees of all the werewolves (oops, shape shifters) and the name of Seth's grandfather is Peter Clearwater. So now you know a little more Twilight trivia!**

**And by the way, I know how Sage feels. My parents took my family and me when I was nine to the Grand Canyon and before you go into the canyon you go through this museum-like place. My dad blindfolded me and took me out of the building and when I was un-blindfolded I was staring straight down into the Grand Canyon. If there wasn't a railing there I probably would have fallen over into the Grand Canyon. The Titanic scene didn't really happen in my life at the Grand Canyon though. I just put that in as my fail attempt at trying to be funny. Thank you for anyone that actually laughed.**

**I wanted to include a bit more into this chapter but the Nessie and Sage scenes came out longer than I expected so I'm sorry if you're not personally fond of this chapter, but there's still a lot of great stuff left to come!**

**What's that last thing I wanted to say? Oh yah, REEEEEVVVVVIIIIEEEEW!**

**-J.J.**


	3. What's Opaque and What's Not

Chapter 3: What's Opaque and What's Not

_Renesmee_

The car ride to Christa's house seemed to be exaggeratingly slow with the way my mother was driving. I can tell because she's going the speed limit. No sane vampire goes speed limit. They need to go at least twenty more miles over the speed limit, which includes my mother.

I feel like my mom is going-or trying-to say something but I only see silence around her mouth. I sometimes see her lips part as if she's about to speak but then they shut in the next second and within my peripheral vision I see her glancing at me from time to time.

"Is there something you want to say?" I ask.

"Nope," My mother says in a clipped tone. She really is a bad liar.

"You don't have to keep things from me you know. I'm not a baby anymore." My mother pushes further down on the gas pedal and the car begins to speed further down the road.

"I know, but you're still _my_ baby. Always have and always will."

"So you are keeping something from me."

My mother frowned and said, "I have a…_a meeting_ today. I'll tell you about it later…if I can." My eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"If you can?"

"Oh look we're here!"

I turn in front of me where my mother speedily pulls into Christa's small driveway and promptly starts to nudge me out of the car all while giving me quick instructions.

"Okay it's twelve thirty and I'm picking you up by four. You have three and a half hours so make the best of it. I'm also calling Christa every hour on the hour to check up on you so don't do anything funny. Dinner should be ready a bit after I pick you up so don't spoil your appetite by eating too much. Goodbye I'll see you later. I love you and I hope you have fun! Tell Christa that I love her too!"

If it weren't for my enhanced hearing I probably wouldn't have heard my mother ramble all that out at such a fast pace. I eye her warily before saying my goodbye and slipping out of the car.

I knock on the door of Christa's house as a rush of nostalgia comes toward me. I've missed not seeing this house for so long. Christa was able to visit me a few times while I was grounded but I haven't seen Ellie or Sage or Jericho in so long. Christa has told me they've been fine and that they haven't changed one bit. She also told me that Seth and Sage were still dating; I wonder how they were working out…

The door opens abruptly and I'm caught staring ghastly at the person in the doorway. It's a good thing that my mother pulled out of the driveway already because it would probably be bad if she saw what was coming next.

"Hi! I'm Dominic! I'm not sure if we've met but I've learned a lot about you from Chris-"

Before Dominic can finish what he was saying, I pounce on him and send him crashing down on the hard wooden floor. A loud crashing sound reverberates through the house as well as I groan from Dominic. I'm sprawled on top of him but I quickly get up and press one foot on top his chest and the other right next to him on the floor.

He gives another groan and opens his eyes to stare frighteningly at me. I step harder against his torso and he growls. I bend over to stare him in the eye.

"What do you think you're doing here? What have you done to Christa!" I hiss/bark in his face.

"Nothing!" He hisses back and I'm tempted to kick him.

"Lies! Tell me or else I'll beat and punch and kick and hit you until you tell me exactly where she is you sorry son of a-"

"Renesmee Carlie Cullen, what the hell do you think you're doing?"

I looked up to see a red-faced Christa glaring down at me from across the living room. My brows furrow in confusion and I straighten up to look her calmly in the eye.

"Christa, you're alright?"

"Of course I'm alright! But he isn't, get off him right now!" Christa spits out.

"But-"

"Now."

I lift my foot from off Dominic's chest and he breaths in a huge lungful of air and clutches his heart with his hands. I didn't realize I was crushing him so hard in the chest but I don't bother to apologize. I take a couple steps forward to Christa so I can talk to her more properly.

"But Christa, what are you doing?"

"I think the question is what is wrong with _you_,Renesmee. You don't come into my house and assault my guests. What were you thinking?"

"I don't understand. He's the enemy!" I screech and point directly at Dominic.

"No, he's not," Christa says more calmly, "He's with us, at least for now he is, so don't hurt him."

I wave my arms frantically in the air for some reason to the situation and I spit out to Christa, "Well you failed to mention that in your last visit!"

"If I did I'm sorry, but even still I've told you that Dominic has been no trouble after the battle. You should apologize."

"What?"

"Turn around and apologize."

Reluctantly, I oblige to Christa's orders and turn around to face Dominic, who is now sitting straight up with his legs crossed and looking at me expectantly.

"I'm sorry," I mumble and say spitefully at the same time.

"Louder," Christa orders, "And more sincere please."

"I'm sorry, Dominic, for smashing you into the floor, suffocating you, and threatening to beat you to near death. I don't consider this my normal behavior and I hope you can forgive me."

"You're forgiven," Dominic says in a relaxed voice.

"Good," Christa says simply, "The two of you may sit down while I get some ice tea to cool us down."

Christa leaves the room with the expectancy that it will not be wrecked while she is gone and slips into the kitchen door. Dominic and me head to sit at the same couch at the same time. At the last second I change my mind and decide to sit in the armchair across from the couch.

"So," Dominic says once we're sitting, "May I introduce myself?"

"I suppose," I say with obvious apathy.

"Well I'm Dominic Dawson and it's nice to meet you…properly this time. And I understand why you attacked me; it should only be necessary for a witch apprentice to be protective of its master and now that I recall you were also helping Christa defeat Victor on that night almost a month ago. Am I correct?"

"Yes."

"Well I have apologized to Christa and her clan for all I've done to you all and the town of Forks-"

"Clan?" I cut in.

"Well isn't that you have here?" He asked. "Christa is the leader who chose you as the apprentice and Sage, Ellie, and Jericho as her subordinates. You're all in a clan with Christa as the leader."

"We're not a clan. Sage, Ellie, and Jericho aren't subordinates, they're friends. And Christa didn't choose me to be her witch apprentice, I asked because I'm her niece."

"Interesting," Dominic mumbles, "Anyway I'll be joining your…_group_…it seems."

"Look don't get the wrong idea but-"

"I'm back," I heard Christa chirped. Christa came sauntering into the room, which relieved some of the tension that was building up. She put a glass of ice tea in front of me on the coffee table and another one in front of Dominic. She sat across the coffee table and sat on the couch, next to Dominic. She had her own glass of ice tea and was sipping it while she speculated us for a second.

"So what were you two talking about?" She asked.

"Nothing really," I said while Dominic remained quiet.

"Well, then," Christa says, "So I wasn't expecting you to come over today, Nessie. I thought you were still grounded."

"But didn't you invite me over?" I asked bemused.

"No." This had to be the eleventh shocker today.

"But-um…"

"But what?"

"Nothing," I said.

I was about to say "but my mother told me you did", but then it hit me.

_I have a meeting today._

My mother lied. Why would she lie just to get me out of the house? What was this meeting? Why was it so vital to get me out of the house? Who was she meeting?

"Nessie," Dominic interrupted my pondering, "Did you here me?"

"What?" I asked.

"I asked do you want to help with potion making?"

I contemplated that thought for a second then asked, "Why are you here?"

"Huh?"

"Why are you here? You say you want to stay with Christa. Is it because Victor's dead that you need to be someone else's puppy?"

"Nessie!" Christa hissed.

"No it's alright. I understand," Dominic said nonchalantly, "Is it alright if I tell you a story, Nessie?"

"What story?"

"It's about me," He answered, "A little something so you know me better."

"Alright."

"Well," Dominic started, "I was born in Seattle eighteen years ago. I lived with my two parents and my twin sister, Marjorie. Life was peaceful. Marjorie and me got along pretty well for siblings and our parents loved each other greatly. We had the simple life in the big city, but then everything changed."

"When me and Marjorie were thirteen, the serial killing and gang activity started to rise in Seattle. Some of my classmates and neighbors had been killed and my parents didn't understand what was going on. By the time they did it had been too late; Marjorie disappeared."

"My father was part of the police force and he spent long hours of the day looking for Marjorie and others. He sometimes came home at two in the morning. But my mother was becoming worse with each day Marjorie was gone. She became bitter and reclusive and talked only when she was yelling at him. She blamed him for Marjorie disappearing and not working hard enough to find her. Everyday their fights would get longer and louder until finally my dad moved out and they got a divorce."

"My mother didn't yell at me but I think she started to forget I existed. She was heavily depressed and when she was noticing me I begged her to see and psychiatrist or at least got some kind of medication help her. I don't know if she listened or not but three months later my dad was murdered and she refused to go on."

"My mother began drinking and spent all night at the bar and all day sleeping or drowning herself in tears. My mother became a mere shadow of her former self and I knew that there was no way to save her now. I had no one left who loved me and my mother was going to be put in to rehabilitation so there was a good chance I would end up in an orphanage. I knew I was doomed."

"Five months ago while I was still seventeen, I was at a café when a women came up to me. I had no idea who she was but she seemed to know who I was. She said that she could give me a better life away from my withered mother and help me take revenge on the people who were the cause of Marjorie and so many others' deaths. I didn't understand what she was offering or how she knew me but the closer and closer my mother got to leaving me I decided to find her again and accept her offer. I found her and she took me away to a mansion-sized house where I fainted. Next thing I knew when I woke up was I was somewhere else with Victor beside me and I was a wizard."

"During my first few weeks as a wizard Victor was considerably polite and taught me the basics of magic pretty well. I asked when I would get revenge on the people that killed my sister. He said I would get revenge when he got his revenge. I was contempt with that offer and followed him loyally for a while. But then he started asking us to hurt people and shoot them. It wasn't till we started maiming police officers that I started to grow wary of him."

"I asked him if I could go back and see my mother or at least find out what happened to her. He said I could never see or hear of my mother again and if I did he would kill me. Later, he told me that we lived right next to the chief of police and that in the middle of the night I was to sneak in and kill him. I refused and he locked me away for a couple of nights."

"Just a couple of days before the battle in the woods I finally figured it out. Me, Tom, Jericho (or at least Jericho had been), we were just pawns. Victor was only using us and made empty promises to keep us on his side. He had no intention of helping us after the battle and, knowing Victor, he was probably going to dispose of us."

"I don't know what happened to Tom and I wish I knew. Tom was a great kid and the only real good company I've had in a while. Maybe he left; I hope he did. Anyway, I'm glad that you guys spared me and I really am sorry for all the suffering I've caused. I hope that one day you all can really trust me and that I can make it up to you."

With that Dominic ended his story with a small smile and leaned back in his chair.

"Nessie you look like you're about to cry," Christa commented.

"No," I choked out. I tried to sound fine but I ended up getting caught in the lump in my throat.

"It's okay. I know it's a sad story," Dominic said.

I smiled to make it look like I agreed with him, but I really started to have tears well up when he said Tom's name. I hated hearing that name. It reminded me of what I saw and what I've caused. I hated that Dominic had hope that Tom was still alive. Maybe in the future he'll forget about him as long as he doesn't go looking for him. Then again there isn't anything to look for but ash…

"Dominic!" Christa shouted loud enough to knock me out of my reverie.

"What?" Dominic asked surprised.

"You weren't found by Victor?"

"No, at least I don't think."

"Don't you know what this means?" Dominic and me looked at Christa bemused.

"Whether Victor or that lady you met changed you, she still brought you to Victor. Maybe they were working together which means Victor had a better motive to kill me than me just being in his way or me being the daughter of the chief of police. Maybe there was a hidden plan behind it all."

"What are you saying?" I asked.

"I'm saying," Christa said, "Is that Victor might have been working for someone else."

* * *

_Sage_

**Some time earlier…**

"Oh my gosh, Seth. I'm so sorry," I apologized quickly while scurrying away from the cliff's edge.

"Oh my…Ow," Seth complained. He was hugging his injured hand to his chest tightly and biting his lip to keep out another moan.

Oh no, what have I done? How could have I let fire slip through my hand so effortlessly? What am I going to say? Once Seth sees his hand he's going to know he's been burnt and then he's going to figure out I burnt him. He's going to demand an explanation and then I'll have to tell him how and then he's going to find out…aw man why did I date him in the first place!

"Sage," Seth whispered, "What are you apologizing for?"

"What?"

"I'm fine. You didn't hurt me. I must have been stung by some really big horse fly or something."

"What but-I-what um uh-wha-how-wha-wha-WHAT?"

"Calm down Sage, what are you mumbling about?" Seth must have seen the overwhelmed look on my face because he chuckled and lifted his hand away from himself and displayed his palm in front of me.

I was expecting at least some sort of first-degree burn, but there was none. In fact, his palm looked completely unscathed. There was no burn mark, no blood, and not even a scratch. It was like I had never burned him.

But that's impossible. Sure the flame wasn't as big as it usually is when I'm attacking someone, but it was still enough large enough to cause a human damage. Why was it that he wasn't hurt? And why didn't his skin catch on fire? There has to be a burn mark somewhere. I shot a flame into his hand, didn't I? Didn't I?

"What's with the face, Sage?" Seth asked and then chuckled again.

"I thought…I-I…"

"What that you hurt me? How?"

"I…don't know"

"You silly little girl," Seth said then patted the top of my head, "It takes a lot to hurt me and I doubt you could leave any damage on me."

"I guess-" I was abruptly caught off by Seth suddenly crashing his lips against mine. It wasn't rough, just unexpected. Seth liked to that sometimes where he would just randomly kiss me out of nowhere. One might think it was sweet, but I really think Seth did it because he liked to see the face I made afterwards where I would get a huge, embarrassingly-pinker-than-a-rose blush and I would get that huge, lost puppy-dog eyes look.

Even still I liked the way Seth's lips felt. They were soft and plush and never left any bruises on my lips. They were also warm, really warm. Every time we kissed his lips were warm, or burning hot. I thought maybe since Seth has a warm personality that he also has to be warm in general, or maybe it's just love. Either way his lips were one of the best things I've ever felt and…I didn't really want to kiss anyone else.

Though, once I started to feel his tongue press against my bottom lip I started to pull away at once. When I opened my eyes to look at him, he had his eyebrows slanted down in confusion and it was my turn to laugh.

"I don't think it would be a good idea to be making out on a cliff, even if there is nice scenery," I said.

"Right," Seth agreed with some hesitancy, "We should start walking home."

With that Seth took my hand and lead me back into the woods where we began our march back to the beach. Seth offered to blindfold me again with his hands, but I denied. Though of course he was still very welcome to carry me around bridal-style from now on.

* * *

**Author's Note: Yay! Another wonderful chapter posted. I'm sorry for the small ending and I'm sorry if you don't like the fluff but I WARNED YOU. **

**Anyway bad news, I won't be able to post next week so the next post will be in two weeks. I'm sorry but I cannot deny a long vacation down at Long Beach Island. Even still, SEND LOTS OF REVIEWS WHILE I'M GONE!**

**Disclaimer: *****checks***** Nope, still don't own Twilight. Never have and never will, oh well. I'M SORRY FOR GRAMMAR MISTAKES!**


	4. Happy Stories Sometimes Have Tragic Ends

**Chapter 4: Happy Stories Sometimes Have Tragic Ends…**

_Leah_

I tapped the fingers on my left hand impatiently against the steering wheel of my car. I chewed on my bottom lip and hoped my mom wouldn't scold me for being late to her "emergency meeting" as she called it because it really is embarrassing to be scolded at by your mother when you're twenty-four years old.

My eyes stared intently at the glowing, red streetlight that had not changed in what seemed like a miniature eternity. I remembered yesterday I had watched some holocaust movie called _Life is Beautiful_. In it the uncanny dad says that if you focus really hard on an object, repeat the action you want it to do over and over again, and wiggle your fingers in the air at it like an idiot, the object will do whatever you say. Idiotic, but hey I would do anything to get out of traffic so I tried it.

I stared even more at the streetlight until my eyes hurt and I needed to blink every two seconds. I then lifted my impatient hand with my tired hand and began to wiggle them in the air while pointing them in the direction of the streetlight.

"Green," I whispered, "Green. Green. Gggrrreeeeeeeeeennnnn." I really hope Seth didn't set up some secret video camera in my car.

Fortunately, I must have an inner magician in me because just seconds later the light turned green. Maybe that kooky dad was on to something.

Unfortunately, the people driving in front of me didn't notice the light turn green and therefore didn't move like ever other driver in the lanes next to us. I squinted to see the driver in the car and found three teenager girls talking animatedly to one another and the one driving seemed to be texting. Instead of using my new found power, I just honked my car.

The three girls turned around and, immaturely if I might add, stuck their tongues out at me and drove off. I rolled my eyes but I guess their immature act was better than the one-fingered gesture people often gave. I drove off and let my brain go on autopilot as I continued towards my home.

My mother called me while I was in a Macys's at 10:00 a.m. this morning saying that she "needed to talk to me." In my twenty-four years of knowing Sue Clearwater I have come to interpret her language into plain English.

"Leah, I would like to speak with you." = "Clean up your room…help Seth with…help me with the groceries…please be home before nine." Type: Usual.

"Leah Clearwater, get your butt down here this instance!" = "You let Seth go into the woods…you went mattress surfing in the house…You snuck Sam into the house…how come you didn't get home till 2:00 a.m.?" Type: Uncommon

"Leah, I need to talk to you." = "You're a werewolf…I'm getting married…Seth fell out of a tree…When a man and a woman really love each other…" Type: Rare

"Leah…come here." = "Your father is dead." Type: Almost Never

Being that this situation is level Rare, my mother wouldn't really appreciate me being late and I don't want to find out what will happen if I am. She asked me to be there at my house by 12:30 p.m. It was now 1:00 p.m. Perfect, just perfect.

Once I arrived at the house I wasted no more time; I ran out of my car and ran towards the front door at werewolf speed and not even checking to see if there were any humans around. I knocked swiftly and urgently on the tarnished, wooden door and waited for an answer.

Thankfully I heard the sound of footsteps padding coming closer to the door, but as they got closer I realized they were too heavy to be my mother's or my brother's. The door opened to reveal…Embry?

"You do realize you're a half hour late and your mom is ticked, right?" Embry said nonchalantly.

"What are you doing in my house?" I asked beyond bemused.

Embry shrugged. "You're mom invited me over."

"What?"

Embry ignored me and walked back into the house. I followed him and noticed we were walking towards the back of the house where the dining room was.

"She invited the entire pack you know," Embry added before we entered the room.

"What?" I repeated. Well enough when we entered the room the entire Black Pack (with the absence of Seth who I'm presuming was still on a date with Sage) was sited around my hard wooden table.

The dining room wasn't too big. The entryway had no door so it would be easier to walk in and out of the room during meals. There was a large, oval, wooden table that could hold up to six people but we could always add two or three more chairs if we had a lot of guests.

The table took up a lot of space so my mother was only able to fit her cabinet of fine china in the far back wall. The cabinet must feel very squished right now considering there's four oversized wolves in the room with it.

"Leah Clearwater," my mother said from the end of the table, "Get your butt over here this instance!"

"Nice to see you too, Mom," I added sarcastically and took a seat between her and Quil. Across from me is where Jacob and Embry sat and were also suppressing laughter.

"Where were you?" My mother hissed.

"Traffic," I said unfazed.

"Whatever," My mother softened her voice and turned to face everyone, "So as you all know I'm getting married-"

"Congratulations," Quil interjected and the rest of us muttered are own congrats.

"Thank you," Mom said, "Of course that means I'll be moving out of the house and in with Charlie."

I gulped. "So you're selling the house?"

"I didn't say that. I love this house and would still like to come back here even after I'm married."

"So you're giving me the house?"

"No."

"But-"

"I'm giving _you all _the house."

"What?" Four werewolves shouted simultaneously.

"Well Sam Uley's pack gets to have their own little hide out at Emily's house and you guys are always so scattered so you all should have your own permanent base. I don't mind."

The moment after she said that, four werewolves all gathered to give her the world's greatest, biggest, and most claustrophobic. Unfortunately before we could touch her she held up her hands like they were blinking red stop signs.

"I have rules!" She warned, "You can't trash this place and if you do I will kick you all out. I'm not cooking and I'm not going to help pay for the house bill. My fine china is also coming with me. I just thought I'd tell you now in case you wanted to move some of your clothing and belongings into the house."

With that we attacked her with a bone-crushing hug and ignored her groan as we squeezed her. We also showered her with thank you's and you're amazing's and she tried to breath out your welcome's. After a couple minutes we let go to let her breathe.

"I promise we will keep this house in perfect condition," Jacob said.

"And as the Alpha you'll make sure if it," Sue replied, "You all are dismissed, except my daughter."

Three joyous wolves left the dining room and then the house while I stood still in the room.

"Yes?" I asked.

"I never asked for your input about the wedding," She explained.

"White tablecloths and a white dress," I replied.

"Not that. You don't mind me marrying Charlie, do you? He's a really great guy and it's not like I was in love with him before your father-"

"I get it, Mom."

"But also," my mother continued, "You don't mind having Bella Sw-I mean Bella Cullen as you step-sister, right?"

"No I don't mind. I also don't mind having Christa Swan as a step-sister."

"Right."

"Who are you inviting?" I asked.

"Oh just Aunt Shelby, Aunt Lizzie, Uncle Michael, Uncle Lucas, some of my cousins, and the rest of my family. There will be some of Charlie's friends and the police force and Emily and Sam Uley and his wolf pack. Your wolf pack and their families are also invited. And then some."

I still gave a little inner cringe at Sam and Emily's names but blew it off and decided to be happy they were coming.

"Have you picked a maid of honor?" I asked.

"Well I'm thinking about your Aunt Shelby and Charlie is to have Billy as his best man." I thought I saw my mom frown a bit at the end of the sentence but decided not to worry about it.

"Hey Mom! Hey Leah," said a familiar voice. We turned around to see Seth entering the dinning room…with Sage.

Personally, I wasn't sure if I liked Sage, not that I have a choice whether I want her to be my future sister-in-law or not, but oh well. Sage seemed nice and overconfident and, well, a lot like Seth and so maybe science was wrong and two positives can attract each other.

However, she smelled…oh how can I say? Funny. Not the she-smells-funny-cause-she-uses-too-much-perfume kind of funny, but she just didn't smell like other humans. Seth doesn't realize this cause he's head over heals in love with this girl and he's imprinted to her (which granted is kind of the same thing) and if the other wolves sense it they don't say anything.

There was also the fact that she was like Nessie in the sense that she seemed way too attached to Christa. Whenever she had to leave Seth she always said, "I should go back to Christa's now." Always Christa's house but never somewhere else or her own home.

She lived in South Bend and her and her cousin drove a little over two hours just so they could see Christa everyday, and most of the time it was three hours cause they first had to go to their private school in Astoria, Oregon. During the weekends they decided to start sleeping over Christa's house too.

I mean Christa was just a friend and didn't they have other friends too? Why would their families allow this? Then again I could be wrong and it wasn't all Christa and Sage is as desperate to see Seth just as much as Seth is as desperate to see Sage. I mean it's not like they've formed some kind of cult with Christa, that's nonsense.

"Hello Seth, hello Sage," My mother says in her kindest voice.

"Hello Mrs. Clearwater, or should I start calling you Mrs. Swan?" Sage replied.

Mom smiled and said, "That would be fine Sage. How was your day?"

Instead of replying, Sage looked at Seth in an almost irritated way and expected him to say something.

"Well," Seth said with a chuckle, "I was giving Sage a little tour of La Push beach and we left when I got bit by a fly."

"You're scared of a fly?" I asked with a smirk.

"Well I was afraid that more would come and start biting Sage." Ah, the overprotectiveness that comes with an imprint and boy is Sage in for a lot of it.

"Well I'm glad you two are okay now. By the way Sage you're invited to the wedding," Mom said with her best grin.

While I was slightly suspicious of Sage, on the other hand, my mother adored Sage. She is more than thrilled that Seth imprinted and finds Sage perfectly suited for him. She's extra nice around Sage and doesn't say anything that might embarrass Seth in front of her cause she's hell-bent on making sure Seth has a perfect relationship, unlike mine.

"You're also free to bring any of your family Sage," Mom added.

Sage frowned and spoke, "Oh, uh, they won't be able to make it and neither will my siblings but I guess Christa will be taking me." Here we are again with Christa!

Seth nudged Sage and said, "You know you never told me about your siblings."

"I didn't?" Sage asked bemused, "Well I have an older half-sister named Daffodil, but we called her Daffy. My mom had and interest naming her children after flowers and trees, go figure. She named my little sister Willow and my baby brother Rowan."

"I think those are lovely names," Mom commented. Maybe my mom was being too polite.

I looked at the wall clock posted next to the fine china cabinet. It read one-fifty exactly and I knew I had to leave now if I didn't want to be late for my other rendezvous.

"Do you need me for anything else, Mom?" I asked.

"Uhm, no Leah," She replied.

"Well I have to be on my way then. Bye Seth, bye Mom…bye Sage." With that I scurried out of the dining room, brushing everyone as I went by, and headed for the front door at a hurried pace. As I opened the front door I heard my mom shout the obvious question.

"Where are you going?"

"I have a date," I answered then left and closed the front door. I jogged through the drizzle that was starting to poor and headed for my 2004 silver Honda Accord that I've been fortunate to own for about a couple months now. I pull out of the driveway and begin my journey towards Port Angeles.

Three o' clock in the afternoon seemed early for a date but it's not like you have much choices when it's a blind date. This was the third blind date that Jacob had set up for me with one of his coworkers at his new job at some auto shop. I hope three times the charm thing really exists or else I'll just have to sate everyone in the dang auto shop before I get it right.

My first blind date was with a twenty-three year old man named Johnny and we went to some place called Bellla Italia. Johnny was...okay, but for some reason I couldn't look at him for too long, almost like I would turn to stone if I looked right into his eyes.

Maybe getting back into the dating routine was making me uneasy. After the meal I had to leave early cause I started feeling sick (something that hadn't happened in a long time). However, when I came home I immediately started feeling better. Johnny called back three times but I never answered and I guess he just gave up on me.

My second date was a twenty-six year old man named Carlos and we went to see that new action movie _The Amazing Arachnid-Man. _Again the uneasy feeling started to build up and I started to get sick. I left him halfway through the movie saying that action movies made me sick or something. Carlos gave up after two calls.

So my first two dates really didn't end well but maybe this time I can just suck it up and try to focus on my date instead of the unmerciful butterflies that pounded in my stomach whenever I thought of being in a romantic relationship again.

My car came to a halt on the highway as it waited behind a line of cars beeping for some sort of movement. I cursed under my breath about traffic being inconvenient today. I sighed and wiggled my hands in the air towards the traffic.

"Move," I commanded, "Move"

* * *

I parked my car across the road from the restaurant Bella Italia while crowds of people buzzed all around all joyful about getting to their destination. Ironically enough my new date had decided to have our date at the same place as my first date. Maybe they new each other; well they did work at the same auto shop. According to Jacob, I was to look for a La Push boy about 5'8 and looked to be in his early twenties standing directly outside Bella Italia.

It wasn't too hard to find him despite the large crowd of people around and the light drizzle that been going on for an hour now. He was standing outside holding an umbrella and wearing a red button up shirt with blue jeans. He tapped his foot impatiently and I was about to go over to him but he pulled out his cellphone; even from here I could see the caller I.D. read "sister." He smiled and started talking animatedly into the cellphone.

That's when I was assaulted by the familiar nausea and queasiness that came earlier with each new date. I hopped back into my car to try and take cover while I was eaten away by the illness. I didn't know what caused it, I mean so what if he has a sister I have a brother and my brother and me are just as perfect fine as him and his sister.

That's when it hit me.

No, my brother and me _weren't_ perfect and fine. We are monstrous wolves that live to kill bloodsuckers and are constantly on the edge of danger. My date and his sister? They weren't wolves they were human. Humans with two perfectly good parents that were both alive and did normal, human things and aged and acted like everyone else. He was just a shadow of my former self.

He could tell me about his day at work and his family and his life, but what could I tell him? Anything I would be able to tell him all led to the fact that I was a werewolf. A werewolf who was forbidden to let out her secret.

A couple years ago I told myself when the vampire situation was over I would start and try to stop phasing and turn human, but the vampires never went away and I never did. My great-grandfathers and ancestors didn't have to put up this life for just a few measly months; they went years with this life. This arduous and treacherous life.

He was human and I was…this…_thing._

I started my car and drove away back to Forks. I couldn't tell what was harder to see through: the rain or my tears.

* * *

The pouring had turned into an absolute downfall by the time I returned home but I didn't rush into my house. I slowly trudged up the pathway to my home and opened the front door and didn't slam it for the first time ever when I closed it.

"Mom," I called quietly, "I'm home."

After a couple of seconds my mother didn't return my call. I looked up and noticed my mother was still in the living room. What did change was that Charlie was beside her trying to rub her back in what seemed like an act of console and she had her head lying down on the table with her arms cradled around her head. I was about to ask what was wrong when my mother called me.

"Leah…come here," she whispered just loud enough for me to hear.

I haven't heard those three dreaded words together in the same sentence in a long time and my heart rate suddenly kicked up a few notches. I walked over to her slowly until I was standing right beside her.

"Leah," Charlie said, "There's something you should know."

"What?" I said.

My mother lifted her head from the table and looked up at me and that's when I finally realized the gravity of this situation. Her cheeks were puffy and red and tear stained, her lips were pushed out in a kicked, puppy-dog sort of way, and her eyes were bloodshot and pouring out a stream of tears. I haven't seen her like this since….since…since…

"Leah," She whispered with a quaky voice, "Your Uncle Lucas is dead."

Lightning flashed across the sky outside, but there was no crackling thunder…

* * *

**Author's Note: Poor Leah…I am so cruel to Stephanie Meyer's characters. But don't worry; things get easier for her…maybe.**

**Unfortunately I have more tragic news: I won't be able to update next week, again. I have more vacation and this one is with my friends so I got to keep them entertained. I'M SORRY AND I HOPE YOU FORGIVE ME FOR ALL THE PAINFUL SUSPENSE YOU HAVE TO GO THROUGH.**

**Anyway good news is that I'm going to enrich your mind further on Twilight. According to The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide, Leah's Uncle Lucas is her mother's brother and her Uncle Michael and Aunt Lizzie (full name is Elizabeth in the book) are Harry's siblings that Sue still keeps in touch with (or at least she does in this world). Aunt Shelby is an aunt I made up to be Lucas's wife.**

**(to be said Nickelodeon style) Please. Please. P-p-please, please….Please review!**

**-J.J.**


	5. Vincenzo

**Chapter 5: Vincenzo**

_Renesmee_

"You're early." I commented.

My mother, not looking down at me, shooed me into the car without a reply. She slams the car door on me, not out of anger but out of…excitement? Or at least it seemed so with that wide grin on her face.

She goes around the car and slides into the driver seat and slams the other car door. The grin on her face was still evident and she was trying her best to keep it from widening into a suspicious smile. She turned the keys in the ignition before finally answering me.

"Only by a couple of minutes."

My mother, still not looking at me, floors on the gas pedal to quickly for me to react. Before I know it we are leaving tire marks all over the Forks roads. I was pretty sure that without looking at my mom you could determine her moods by the speed at which she drove. The slower she drives the weaker the mood and the faster she drives the stronger the mood, and my mother was definitely anticipating something.

"You lied."

"Renesmee, I'm only fifteen minutes early-"

"I'm not talking about that."

My mother finally glances my way and I think her grin grows before she speaks, "You're really too smart to let anything get passed you, you know?"

"Christa didn't invite me over," I say.

"No she didn't," My mother replied.

"You just needed me away for your meeting. You going to tell me what it's about?"

"You're also insightful," my mother said nonchalantly, "I suppose you get that from me."

"You also seem to be eager about something."

"Lets say the meeting went well."

"Did the meeting have something to do with me?"

"Yes." My mother then takes one hand off the wheel and holds my hand with it.

"Mom, will you please tell me it's about."

"It's a surprise."

A surprise? My birthday was four months ago, and why all the sudden is my mother surprising me now? Were we going to celebrate my Happy You're-No-Longer-Grounded-Day? But that doesn't sound very much like my mother, nor does it my family.

"Are we going bowling?" I ask randomly.

"No," My mother says with a bemused grin, "Did you want Emmett to take you back to the bowling alley?"

"Um, I don't know."

Now that I had my mind on bowling I started to remember my first encounter with Natalia in the woods. Not that Natalia had disappeared from the spotlight in my mind but it wasn't till now that something chilling clicked in my head: was it possible that Victor was working with Natalia?

No it wasn't because then why would she kill Tom? After all she had done, if anything she was undermining Victor, not aiding. And Dominic's creator, I never got the chance to ask this to Christa, but how could she create a wizard when witches were supposed to be like shape shifters?

"Are you excited?" My mother said breaking into my pondering.

"Huh?"

"We're here."

My mother must have sped up the last couple of miles because when I looked up we were already parked into the Cullens' driveway. I caught my breath when I noticed an unfamiliar car also in the driveway; a brand new, yellow 2012 Fiat. Either Alice has a new car to obsess over or some Italians are visiting, I'm hoping the former.

"Come on," My mother said, "We shouldn't keep them waiting."

"Them?" I asked tentatively.

"Yes, we have guests. The same guests I had a meeting with earlier."

Before I could question or protest my mother took me by the hand and led me out of the car. I was hesitant walking up the stone path to the Cullen mansion but I tried to calm myself with the fact that my mother wouldn't let anyone dangerous into the house. Or at least she wouldn't repeat that mistake twice…

My mother unlocked the door and pushed it open, and then she led me to the couch in the living room and carefully sat me down.

"Renesmee there is someone I would like you to meet," My mother said, as I very well should have predicted.

Just then my family pours into the living room through various other rooms and, following my grandmother and grandfather, an older boy and a young vampire man come into the room through the kitchen.

The vampire man stands by Grandmother and Grandfather but the older boy comes to stand in front of me.

He's somewhere around eighteen or nineteen, maybe twenty, and a couple inches below six foot. His skin had a light, Mediterranean olive tone to it that held not a single blemish. His hair was shaggy and light brown and covered his forehead, part of his ears, and most of the back of his neck and he had deep evergreen eyes that somehow seemed to be the most normal part of his appearance. All in all you could say he was really…handsome.

"Renesmee," My mother said, "This is Vincenzo. He's come to visit you." Vincenzo smiled and held out his hand which a slowly took hold of and shook.

I smiled politely and asked, "May I ask why Vincenzo is here?"

"Vincenzo is like you, he's half human and half vampire."

For some reason, I was able to keep my eyes from bulging out of their sockets and my jaw from dropping off my face when my mother said those words. My breath caught and I had no words to speak with.

"I live in Italy of course so news of you got around pretty fast," Vincenzo said, "I would have come sooner but I didn't know where to look for you but it's finally nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too," I say still dumbfounded.

"By the way this is my father," Vincenzo says and points me to the new vampire in the room who does look relatively like him. He comes over and shakes my hand as well.

"My name is Marcello," he says.

"It's also nice to meet you too, I'm Renesmee Cullen."

"So I've heard," Marcello said, "I also heard there's another half vampire too."

"Yes he'll be here shortly as well," My mother answered.

"Other half vampire?" I asked.

"Nahuel. I've also invited him over to meet Vincenzo."

"Oh," I say then turn to Vincenzo and Marcello, "Am I the first other half vampire you two have met?"

"No actually," Vincenzo said, "We met another one actually just a few years ago. She goes by the name Daphne, I also invited her here if you don't mind."

"Not at all," My mother replied. So in total there were going to be four half vampires in this household by I'm assuming tomorrow. This was probably going to be the greatest congregation of half vampires in the past millennia.

* * *

_Nahuel_

Huilen had a peculiar face when she was sleeping, or rather she had a peculiar face when she was _feigning_ to sleep.

To human eyes she looked peaceful, that her eyelids rested nicely on top of her oddly discolored eyes, that her lips were relaxed and shut so she could breathe evenly in and out of her nose. Her whole face seemed relaxed and tranquil, at least to human eyes.

To me her face was too stiff, that she had to squeeze her eyelids tightly so they wouldn't open, that her lips were stiff because they were too pressed together and they folded shut so they couldn't breathe in the air of fresh human blood. It was even harder now considering we were in an enclosed area of humans in an airplane.

Ever since we met the Cullens, we decided to resort to the ways of the vegetarian vampire. It was easier for me because I didn't necessarily have to drink blood and didn't have as strong of an urge as Huilen.

Huilen on the other hand had it hardest because she was a full vampire and vampires have a difficult time changing, especially after one hundred and fifty years. But as usual, Huilen was determined and she was proud to say she hadn't killed a single human in five years, or at least not that I know of.

When Bella had invited us back to Forks, Huilen wanted to walk all the way from Brazil to northern United States, but then of course we wouldn't be able to make it in time to meet the "new" half vampire, Vincenzo. So airplanes would have to do.

We had taken a cab to Rio de Janeiro where we got on our first plane to Nicaragua, then from Nicaragua we went to Mexico, and now were on a plane from Mexico to Forks, Washington. It was probably a good thing that we were almost there because I had a feeling Huilen was on her breaking point. Just then the announcer spoke up.

"We are about to land, everyone please put on you seatbelts." The seatbelt light flashed on and the sound clicking metal filled the within the airplane.

Huilen's eyes snapped open abruptly as I was buckling my seatbelt (not that I needed it) and she went to buckle her own belt.

"Nahuel," Huilen whispered, "Do you still have that e-mail from Bella."

"Yes." I pulled out a piece of paper which I had scribbled Bella's e-mail on since they didn't allow computers with Internet service to be used on the plane.

"What's the half-blood's name again?" Huilen asked.

"Vincenzo Agostino," I replied.

"Where's he from?"

"Italy," I said but then saw the scowl on my aunt's face, "South Italy in Sicily, Bella says he has no relation with the Volturi."

"And what of the boy's father?"

"He's…with his father. His name is Marcello. It says here that Vincenzo was born 1935 before World War II. His father has been traveling with him ever since and also maintains a vegetarian lifestyle like the Cullens."

"And what of the mother?"

"I don't know…" Both Huilen and I grimaced.

"How long is he staying there?"

"I don't know but I think probably a week or so."

"What's his favorite color?" I narrowed my eyes at her.

"What?" She said, "You can tell a lot about a person by their favorite color."

"Right," I say back, "Even so she doesn't say it."

"What does he want with Renesmee?"

"I think he just wants to meet her."

"Mhm, I'm going to keep on eye on that boy." Huilen then went back to "sleep."

I sighed and rested against the fuzzy, airplane chairs while the plane continued to land smoothly. Out of my peripheral vision I noticed there were some people staring at. Carefully, I turned my head half on inch to get a better look at my snoops and noticed three young adult girls. They were in the next column two seats down. They were all staring at me with some sort of euphoric expression on their face except one girl that seemed mischievous.

Did they listen to mine and Huilen's conversation? But we were whispering too low to hear, so why were they staring?

I turned around and they all instantly looked in other directions and slowly had a blush growing on their faces. Before I could question their actions I felt the plane hit the ground and go down the runway. When they allowed people out of the plane, Huilen practically grabbed me and charged out of the airplane without a second thought.

I had to hold Huilen's hand at the baggage reclaim while waiting for the luggage to come by. What was worse then being confined in a closed area with humans was being in a public area congested with at least hundreds of different humans. A human accidentally bumped into us and Huilen had to grip on to me entirely to keep from losing it. I grabbed our luggage once it arrived and ran out the closest door.

We took a cab to the Cullens house (cause a bus was too painful for Huilen and too long) that thankfully the cab driver didn't charge us since we weren't leaving the town. Once in the cab Huilen started breathing regularly without the intoxication of a mass of humans everywhere.

"Huilen?" I asked.

"What?'

"There were these people staring at us…well actually me."

"For what?"

"They were just staring. I think they were eavesdropping on our conversation but I'm not sure."

Huilen frowned. "What did they look like?"

"They were three young adult girls staring at me. They seemed to be staring at me with some sort of interest but I don't know what." I watched slowly as Huilen's frown turned into a grin and she raised her eyebrows.

"Nahuel, you're a smart kid, think about what you just said."

"What?"

"Maybe I've kept you too antisocial all these years, but they were girls and you're a boy, who frankly isn't that ugly."

"So they were…"

"Yes they were staring at you cause they thought you were good looking."

"Oh," I said dumbfounded and heard the cab driver suppress a chuckle.

The rest of the two-minute ride was quiet and when we arrived at the Cullen home I tipped the cab driver and brought our bags to the front door. Unfortunately by the time we arrived it was growing dark and it began raining hard. When we rung the doorbell nobody answered and no one answered again when we knocked.

"Nahuel," Huilen said, "Do me a favor and go around the back to see if there is a back entrance."

I nodded and did as told. The forest nearly crowded the Cullen home on all sides except the front so I was stepping in drenched leaves and slippery mud while walking around tall trees. I didn't turn around until I heard a moan in the distance. I was about to keep going but then I heard it again. And then the smell of fresh blood hit me.

"Hello?" I called out and I was responded by an even louder moan that sounded like a plea for help. I tried jogging through the rainy forest in the storm while following the sound of the moan. The moans continued without me calling and grew louder with each step I took. Finally I reached the source.

I looked around then down and found a young woman on the ground a few feet from me still moaning. I instantly dropped down to her side; that's when I noticed the blood gushing out of her leg.

"Hello, are you still there? I'm here to help," I said.

"Hel…help…me," She responded.

"What happened?" I asked.

"T…tr…tripped," She said. I wrapped my jacket around her and put one hand on her heart to make sure she had a steady pulse.

"What's your name?" She didn't respond but I decided to pick her up with both arms that created a loud shriek from her. I then carefully but quickly carried her to the Cullen house.

I ask again, "What's your name?" I can see her hesitate but she opens her mouth and lets out two syllables.

"Leah."

A loud boom of thunder sounded from all directions, but I don't recall ever seeing lightning…

* * *

**Author's Note: I should stop torturing Leah. Shouldn't I? Maybe, I like her as a character but I still have a plot for her to finish. **

**Anyway, were you guys just completely shocked? Hahah I hope so I do my best at suspense. I hope my introduction to Nahuel was interesting and none of you are allowed to complain because I'm keeping him in the story no matter what. **

**So before you guys get happy that I'm updating early I have bad news. I've updated today because I can't update Wednesday or the following week so you guys will have to do with this chapter for now; I'm sorry I wasn't expecting a busy summer. I might have to change update days when the school year begins and I might need to make it every two weeks instead of once a week but I promise to continue the story!**

**-J.J.**


	6. When Uncanny Gets Uncanny

**Chapter 6: When Uncanny Gets Uncanny**

_Renesmee_

I had learned a lot today, mostly about a certain half vampire I had met but some other things, things about my race (though most I had already learned from Nahuel). For instance, half vampires are impervious to quite a lot of things, but some things like jet lag, time zone changes, and sleep were all still affective on half vampires.

Which is why even though it was only five o' clock in the afternoon right now, it was approximately three o' clock in the morning in Italy. So about half an hour after I met Vincenzo he fell unconscious on the couch and had to be brought to one of the guest rooms.

Vincenzo's father, Marcello, was still in the room chatting with Carlisle, Esme, and my father. My mother and two aunts stood nearby them having a conversation of their own and sometimes joining in with Marcello's conversation. Thus leaving me and my two uncles to watch the local news reporting about a murder in Astoria, a town _far_ south of Washington. It was relatively quiet and peaceful.

That is until a frantic, screaming-in-Portuguese, and rain-drenched Huilen came barging in through the door. She immediately ran up to Carlisle and shook him by the shoulders while speed talking in her foreign language.

"English Huilen," Carlisle said softly.

"There's a girl who's been injured severely," She announced. Just as she said it, Nahuel, who was also soaked, came in with a young woman in his arms. A person who happened to look like Leah… it was Leah Clearwater!

Nahuel, Leah, and Huilen were all dripping pints of water onto the floor, but nobody was looking at the growing puddle on the floor, we were all concerned about the gaping hole in Leah's right leg that was gushing out and staining the floor with blood.

"Bring her upstairs!" Carlisle ordered and Nahuel and Huilen quickly obliged.

"I'm sorry," Carlisle quickly apologized to Marcello before following Huilen and Nahuel upstairs.

The once quiet room was now filled with a loud and worried commotion as everyone spoke different things:

"Where did she come from?"

"Esme go help Carlisle!"

"We should bring her to Carlisle's office in the hospital."

"Somebody call Jacob!"

And in Marcello's case: "Who is she?"

"Leah," I replied to him while everyone else ran around the house doing various jobs.

"You let a human girl into here?!" He spoke horrified.

"She's not necessarily human." Marcello gave a bemused look, "I'll explain later, I'll be right back."

I ran up the stairs of the Cullen mansion and followed the trail water and blood that eventually led to the library down the hall. I bumped into Nahuel jus as he was coming out of the library with Leah's blood staining across his button-up shirt and pants, besides that he looked like he had ran a marathon under Niagara Falls.

"Carlisle told me to leave so he could do his work," Nahuel said frantic, "I'm not sure if she'll live."

"Yes of course…she's a…fast healer and a usual patient of Carlisle."

"Are you sure? She could bleed to death."

"She's not going to bleed to death any time soon." To be honest I was more curious to the fact of how Nahuel could be more concerned about Leah than Leah's blood on his clothes.

"What happened?" I asked.

"I had arrived at your house earlier but no one was answering the door and I…I went around the house to see if there was a back entrance and…I heard moaning…and then I found her and she was bleeding real bad…I brought her to Huilen…and now we're here. Are you sure she's going to be okay…Leah…?"

"Yes," I said, "How do you know her name?"

"I asked…and she told me."

"Do you know what happened to her?"

"It sounded like…like she fell somehow."

"By our house?"

"Yes not far from your house."

"Here," I said while taking his hand, "I'll take you to a bathroom." I could see him about to question why before he remembered the condition of his clothing.

"That's probably a good idea," He said.

"Where's Huilen?"

"One of your family members took her elsewhere."

Without saying another word I dragged Nahuel down the other end of the hallway where the spiral staircase that led to the third floor was. It was the closest shower, but when I got on the third floor I regretted my decision when I realized one of the guest rooms was up here. The only occupied guest room that is.

Just as I reached the bathroom, again I ran into another certain male half-breed and said male was shirtless and had olive toned skin and a bemused look on his face.

"Renesmee," Vincenzo said, "What's going on?"

"Who's he?" Nahuel asked.

You know somehow when I imagined Nahuel and Vincenzo meeting for the first time, I imagined something different then Nahuel covered in smelly rain water and wet blood and Vincenzo in nothing but pajama boxers. I suppose it was just the norm for Cullen luck.

"Nahuel this is Vincenzo, Vincenzo this is Nahuel," I said while pointing at both of them for their introductions.

"Oh," The boys both said simultaneously.

"Nice to meet you?" Vincenzo said. He said it in question form because he was still examining Nahuel's filthy attire and the puddle he was creating around himself.

"Good to meet you too," Nahuel said in his best nonchalant voice.

"Well good now you two have met. Nahuel, follow me. Vincenzo, you stay here until I get back."

I swiftly dragged Nahuel into the grand bathroom a few feet away from us and quickly gave him a towel, shampoo, and soap and told him to throw away the soap when he was done (it's not impolite I just don't want Leah's blood, if only a little, on soap in a vampire household).

I left the bathroom-accidentally slamming the door-where Vincenzo was waiting patiently outside for an explanation. He was still only his blue pajama boxers, revealing his well-tanned and muscular chest, while still curious about the buzz going around the house.

"It sounds like a murder was just committed," Vincenzo said only slightly joking.

"A girl who was wounded just needs some medical attention so Carlisle's helping her."

"Goodness, does this always happen?"

"Depends on the type of patient you mean," I said warily as Vincenzo furrowed his brows at my answer.

"I'll explain later," I said. In fact there was a lot of explaining to do once this pandemonium ended.

"Get some rest," I said before turning and heading downstairs. Vincenzo reluctantly went back into his room, though I doubt if he wants to go back to sleep.

As I was walking back down to the first floor I contemplated about the past twenty minutes of my life. There were no current, hostile dangers in the area so how does one end up end up with a hole in their leg? Especially a werewolf. "She fell somehow," Nahuel had said, and by our house. Was she looking for someone? Someone here and then got into an accident?

What if Natalia came back? But why would she hurt Leah twice? So Leah must have really got into an accident. But where were the rest of the pack then?

Just as I hit the last step on the staircase before the first floor, my mother appears before me and holds a cell phone up to my face.

"Can you call Jacob?" She asks.

"Why me?" I ask back.

"Because I have to run to the hospital with your father and Alice to get some supplies for Carlisle."

I huff and snatch the cellphone from my mother to look for Jacob's number in her contacts.

"Besides," My mother adds, "Jacob will come here faster if you talk to him." My mother then disappears out the front door and into the torrential rain with my father and Aunt Alice.

I find Jacob's number and hold the cellphone up to my ear and tap my foot as I wait.

He answers on the second ring.

"Bella?" Jacob greets unsure.

"No it's Nessie. You need to get here," I sigh, "Fast."

* * *

_Sage_

I let my hands rub Seth's hair soothingly while the other rubs his back comfortingly, kind of like how someone would console a small child that was crying. We were inside a charter bus that protected us from the raging storm outside and sitting down on fuzzy, warm bus seats. It actually wasn't too bad but I think I would rather feel the torrential rain than Seth's tears on my shoulder.

It was only barely five but the dark storm clouds made it look dark as night. I had wanted to take the bus stop from La Push to Forks and then have Christa come pick me up rather than burdening Mrs. Clearwater-future Mrs. Swan-to drive me for about a half hour to Christa's house and then back. Seth, however, wanted come with me so that I got a safe ride on the bus (really, was the bus that dangerous?).

Anyway, Seth got a call from his mother telling him to come home immediately and, of course, Seth refused to leave me here. So his mother told him the "bad news." She told him that his uncle died.

So that's how Seth and me ended up in a bus alone in the back, while it was rain, and with Seth sobbing into my shoulder. The only other people here were the bus driver (who didn't charge us anything after seeing Seth's child-like, innocent face weeping) and a girl in her teens who was strangely wearing a paper, cone-shaped, birthday cap. Maybe I'll say happy birthday on my way out.

I did my best to try and keep Seth from breaking down right here in the bus: I cradled him close to me, kissing his forehead ever now and then, and whispering condolences into his ear.

"I didn't see him all the time," Seth sobbed, "And I started seeing less and less of him as I grew older, but he was funny and kind and he took me to see my very first movie in a theater and…_and…_"

"Shhh," I soothed, "Don't worry you'll always have those memories of him."

"But I won't be able to make anymore!" Seth cried. I pursed my lips but hummed something of a lullaby to see if that would help.

"He lived a long and fulfilling life," I said.

"But he didn't! He didn't! He was shot and killed! He was murdered, Sage!" Seth shouted and I could see the bus driver and the birthday girl stiffen.

"You need to calm down," I said.

"But he's not coming back!"

"I know but you're going to have to live with it. Many other people have and one day you'll see your uncle again, up in the big, pearly gates cause I know that's where you'll go and where your uncle is right now."

Seth clutches on to me harder and mutters something too low for anyone else to hear, "It was hard enough losing my dad."

"I know, I'm sorry," I whisper.

He stops talking and his sobbing gets quieter, but I feel more tears stain my shirt and I can feel his shaking get worse, in fact I wasn't sure someone could shake the way he is.

Feeling and watching Seth slowly collapse in my arms caused me to have my own eyes water. I wasn't sure how I was going to leave this bus with him like this and expect him to get home safely and I wasn't sure how he was going to deal with this without me there. It wasn't long before my own tears spilled over and I was crying. Seth seemed to notice immediately me weeping and his tears seemed to pause while he eyed me curiously.

"Why are you crying?" He asked.

"I don't know…cause you're crying?"

Seth lifted his hands up to my face to wipe away my tears with his thumb, but he continued to cry as he did so and that cause me to cry harder. He cried, I cried, he cried again, I cried again; a nasty circle.

At some point in Seth's futile attempt to stop my tears, he gave up and then used his hands to bring my face to his in a passionate kiss.

I kissed back like it was the only thing that would help and didn't even care if the bus driver and the birthday girl stared at us warily. If Seth wanted a kiss then I would do it to make him happy.

Unfortunately the passionate kiss turned into something else entirely. Where my braid began, he buried his hands into the roots of my hair and clutched a little too tightly. His lips didn't leave mine after several seconds and I was starting to get worried that he might accidentally asphyxiate me with his lips.

I tried to break away but his hands in my hair also kept my face continuously pressed against his. I panicked; this was not one of Seth's kisses. Seth's usual kisses were soft, gentle, and the way they moved made him seem both shy and confident and when I kissed him I felt…safe.

This new kiss, however, made me feel like I was kissing a stranger. A stranger with rough, hard lips that were too commanding to feel comfortable in and with this Stranger Seth I wasn't too sure if I was safe.

I put my hands on Seth's chest to try and push him away and I almost pulled away when I felt him. His chest was shaking, no wait, it felt like he was _vibrating_, badly. The way he was vibrating felt like something was shaking from inside of him and he was struggling to keep it in. It didn't seem…_human._

Even still I did my best to try and shove him, but I think that made him mad. The next thing I knew was that one of his hands left my hair to travel down until it hit the hem of my shirt. I punched my fists against his chest but I felt his hand slowly slither up my shirt. If I could breathe properly I would probably start hyperventilating.

_SLAM!_

The bus halted to an abrupt stop that broke Stranger Seth and me from our aggressive kiss and sent our heads crashing into the backs of the fuzzy seats in front of us. I rubbed my head with a small moan and peered to look at Stranger Seth. When I looked at him though, the slam must have knocked some sense into him because could easily see that the old Seth was back.

Seth looked at me horrified, like he had just stabbed me with a butcher knife. Before either of us could say anything the bus driver turned around to glare at us.

"There will be none of that!" The bus driver said. The birthday girl was also staring at us with her mouth gaping open.

"You either stop or you leave. Pick," The bus driver warned.

I was about to say that we would behave but Seth spoke before I could mumble out a word.

"I'll leave," He said adamantly. I turned to look at him in shock. I tied to touch his hand but I noticed that the vibrating had gotten worse.

"I'm sorry," He said sincerely and ran to the front of the bus faster than the bus driver could open the door. I tried to follow him out but the bus was already moving by the time I wanted to.

I settled for moving to the other side of the bus that I could follow Seth with my eyes. He was running in the opposite direction of where the bus was going and in the torrential rain. I could see that his eyes were bloodshot but I didn't know if it was rain or tears streaming down his cheeks. Before I could figure it out he vanished into the dark woods.

I sat back down in my previous seat with a wave of melancholy hitting me, like Seth had taken something from my heart with him that left me feeling gloomy.

I noticed that the birthday girl was still staring at me but this time her eyes were a little sympathetic. Instead of smiling to reassure her I turned away and looked at the ground and tried not to think about how lonely I started to feel.

In the distance, I heard a loud wolf cry out a broken howl. I would think that the wolf was trying to echo my feelings out to the world, but for some reason I told myself that it was

* * *

Seth.

**Author's Note: What's this? An early update? Am I being nice to you all? Of course not! You see what I do to Leah, why wouldn't I treat you the same? XD Don't worry I'm joking. The early update is because today is my friend Ash's birthday. Happy Birthday! And since she's the only one of you that has actually reviewed this story (except Bookwormwriter, thank you too) I thought I would return the favor. *****Glares menacingly at the good amount of people I know read this story***** Also, hence, why there is a girl with a birthday hat on the bus.**

**Next update will be next week as usual which is also the same day I go back to school. Yay I'm so excited. *cough* Sarcasm *cough* I MIGHT change the update days to Friday though because my schedule is back to normal and because everyone loves Fridays anyway.**

**Disclaimer (why do I put this?): I OWN NOTHING. NOTHING AT ALL! Except Christa, Ellie, Jericho, etc. and Sage & Seth's relationship, which might just get really complicated…**

**I suck at grammar, but please review!**


	7. In Over My Head

**Chapter 7: In Over My Head**

_Ellie_

The La Push beach was starting to become more and more beautiful every time I saw it. It was calm and relatively peaceful as it wasn't one to get a lot of tourists (Because really who wants to go to the beaches in the rainiest state of the entire U.S.) and it was the end of winter so anyone visiting would be wearing a coat of some sort. However some tourists and natives came here to take a little walk on the beach in the early mornings and afternoons.

There was definitely no one here right now, though, since it was approaching night and ominous storm clouds were creeping across the light grey sky. Although some people might detest Washington's rainy weather, I had grown fond of it.

It reminded me of the city in France that I was born in, Versailles (The same place where my sister, Tiffany LaBow, and my mother, Lucille LaBow, were living in right now). Versailles wasn't one of the sunniest places of France and it rained frequently, though it wasn't as bad as Forks. Then I had to leave Versailles at the age of nine to move to the scorching heat of Phoenix, Arizona.

I would have moved back to Versailles with my sister and my mother, but really nothing would change besides the scenery. My sister would still be the ungrateful girl she is and hog the spot light and mother would still treat her like the favorite child while I would be there and be the failed family prodigy.

My twin cousins, Dean and Darrel, were nice but they also fed off my mother's praise and I was only a little said to see them go. Then there was Rita, she was adopted into the family like Sage and she was…okay, but she liked to kiss up to Tiffany and my mother like they were queens.

The only people who were technically in my mother's clan but weren't adopted were Christa and Sage. Christa liked the family but kept her maiden name, Swan, and as everybody knows, ran away from the clan nearly five and a half years ago to be with her beloved human family and leaving post-it saying she would be back in a few years. Sage and I have kept Christa's whereabouts a secret from the rest of the family since Lucille would probably do something unspeakable once she saw Christa again.

Sage never really became a LaBow. When I wanted to stay in Washington to finish school, Sage stayed with me. Sage doesn't like my mother…for some reason, and hates my sister because of how she treats me. The only people Sage likes is Christa and I and if I didn't exist Sage probably would have ran away with Christa, though I don't think she would have ever come back…

A heavy wind came by-a warning for the encroaching storm-and I hugged myself closer together in my dark magenta trench coat. Sage was my best friend, but lately she had been busy with her boyfriend, Seth, that I approved of but wish he didn't occupy so much of Sage's time. Christa tells me that a relationship always starts with the "honeymoon" stage where the couple is infatuated with each other and it's normal for friends and family to feel neglected. Unfortunately the phase can last from a few weeks to a few months.

Christa says after the phase is over they'll go back to normal and everything will be all right or else. By "or else" Christa means "or else they break up" but I don't see why she doesn't say it; Christa isn't to keen on the possibility that Sage and Seth might break up. As for me, my good side is saying that Sage should be happy while my bad side feels resentment and hopes they break up.

Christa doesn't really feel neglected by Sage because the wizards Jericho and Dominic, who usually badger her about trivial things while she tries to get them settled with their new lifestyle, also occupy her time. This also means that I don't really see her as much either.

The only other person I can talk to is Nessie but she's been grounded for a month now and she hangs at Christa's house anyway. So that's the whole story of how I spend most of my days on the La Push beach, specifically First Beach, contemplating my life and watching the waves roll up the shore.

I probably should go because it was probably about to pour any second and I could hear the ocean getting angrier with each new wave. The storms clouds made the sky look darker with each second that passed. I looked down at the huge fallen tree I was sitting on that probably fell with one of the last storms.

It was about one of the thickest trees from the forest thats diameter was the same length of feet from my hand to my shoulder. It still looked very much alive with no sign of decaying even though I've seen it here for a while now; it seemed like the tree was immortal. I usually sat here than on one of the irregular pieces of driftwood.

I looked down at the book in my hands; when I usually came here it was to read. I had brought _How to Say Goodbye in Robot _by Natalie Standiford. I had already begun the book and found myself drawn to it. The protagonists were realistic and enjoyable and the people on the radio show were goofy yet hilarious. The main character Bea didn't have the most charming life but I wished that I could trade lives for at least page so I could cure my boredom.

I had spoken too soon.

_Grrrrrrr. Thump-thump. Thump-thump. Thump-thump. Grrr._

I immediately ducked down behind the dead tree as I heard several ferocious animals like bears coming closer out of the forest. Elves like me didn't have the most superior supernatural senses but we are well known for our extraordinary sense of hearing that is one of the best a supernatural being could have (hence why the myth that elves have large ears came along, which is not true).

GRRRRRR. THUMP-THUMP. THUMP-THUMP.

They were getting close, _fast_. I could hear them about to hit the beach when, in the instant of someone snapping their fingers, the sounds of fierce animals were gone. Their absence was replaced by the soft breeze of the wind and then the sound of…loud teenage boys.

"I think you guys are getting slower," A husky voice teased then chuckled.

"You're one to talk, _chief_." Said a similar yet snarky voice.

"Yah, _Alpha_, is someone sad he didn't get to see his Nessie today?" Said another voice. It took me a moment to realize that all these voices were similar to me.

I lifted myself into a crouch position behind the tree and peaked my head over the tree. I recognized the three boys as the Quileute friends of Sage's boyfriend Seth: Jacob, Embry, and Quil. I had never been in a conversation with any of them but Sage had told me about them a couple of times and I had seen them from a distance several times. It was also known that Jacob was a close friend of Nessie's, even though I have no idea how a huge, seven-foot-looking male teenager became best friends with a young and petite Nessie. Maybe he babysat her a couple of times or something.

I quickly ducked my head back behind the tree to avoid being spotted. It was too late to pop back up on the log and pretend I had been there the whole time reading a book so I would just have to wait for them to move away far enough to sneak around them and get to the parking lot where my car was.

"Speaking of which," I heard Quil say, "Is Nessie grounded anymore?"

"Nope, I don't think so," Jacob replied, "She must have been freed today.

"That's too bad," Embry said softly and there was a momentary silence.

"And why's that, Emmy?"

"Don't call me Emmy," Embry spat out.

"Whatever. Why's it bad that Nessie's no longer grounded?"

"Cause now she's gonna occupy all your time. I would have expected you to go on at least one date while she was grounded." I don't know why, but for some reason I thought I could hear Quil and Jacob rolling their eyes at Embry's comment.

"You know I can't," mumbled Jacob.

"Yah whatever."

"It'll happen to you one day Embry, just wait," Quil assured and I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. What would happen one day?"

"Yah but all the pack members younger than me have," Embry replied. _Pack members_, I thought. Pack must be a reference for his group of friends I suppose.

"Not Leah," Jacob said.

"Leah seems to be an exception." There was some silence after that last statement, only to be broken by Quil moments later.

"Speaking of which has anyone seen her?"

"Nope," Embry said, popping the "p."

"Maybe she's with Seth," Jacob suggested.

"Seth and Sage are on date," Quil said.

"He took Sage up to a romantic mountain cliff," Embry said sarcastically and my eyes widened at the word cliff. I wasn't too sure if Sage had a big fear of heights, but I knew she tended to stay on flat land and freaked at the thought of going on an airplane.

"He actually took her up there?" Jacob said in disbelief.

"That kid might need some dating advice," Embry said

"I hope the date ended well at least," Quil said.

Just then they stopped talking and I wondered idly if they were walking away even though I heard no footsteps. I peaked my head over the log and found that they were still there sitting in an awkward circle in the sand. Unlucky for me, Quil lifted his head in my direction and I crouched back down before I thought he could look at me. Please tell me he didn't see. Please tell me he didn't see me. Please tell me he didn't see me-

"Hey I think I saw something."

_Crap._

"What?" Jacob asked.

"I don't know," Quil said, "But it was behind that fallen tree over there."

"Maybe it was a squirrel," Embry suggested.

"Can't be, it was blonde."

"Maybe it was a duck."

"Yes, of course Embry, how could I forget that ducks just spontaneously fall out of the sky?"

"I tried."

"If it bothers you so much, why don't you go check it out?" Jacob asked.

Oh no, oh gosh, oh crap! I can already hear Quil slowly walking over here. I got to think of something and something fast!

Maybe if I pretend to just have been laying down here the whole time reading a book I might be able to avoid suspicion. But then he might ask why I was laying down in the damp sand beside a dead tree instead of home. Can't do that.

_Stomp. Stomp. Stomp._

What if I pretend to play dead? Wait no that can't end too well. What if I pretended to be asleep? Yes, I could pretend to be some weird person that falls asleep on beaches and then I could run away when their backs are turned.

_Stomp. Stomp. Stomp._

"Funny seeing you here."

I looked up-when I should have pretended to be sleeping or one of the afore mentioned options-and found that Quil was not there speculating me and that the voice that was just heard was not Quil's.

"Sam," I heard Jacob say, "What a pleasant surprise."

"Haven't seen you in a while," The previous voice-Sam-said.

"Where are Seth and Leah?" Said a second new voice.

"Seth's on a date and Leah is elsewhere."

"Oh yah we heard about Seth," Sam said.

Instead of looking from above the fallen tree, I slowly and quickly sneaked to where it's branches started and peeked at the newcomers through the thin, leafless branches.

I found that there were three newcomers, almost identical to Quil, Jacob, and Embry but seemed older and slightly bigger.

"How is he?" the man in front of the other two said, which I'm pretty is Sam.

"Lovey dovey, just as they usually are," Embry said, "And Seth seems happier, if that's possible."

"Interesting," The second voice and the man left of Sam mumbled.

"Seth doesn't shut up about her. Kind of like how you never shut up about Kim, Jared," Embry said and the second man-Jared-squinted at Embry annoyed.

"I hear she's a pale face. What's her name?" The third man asked.

"Sage," Jacob said, "Sage Montgomery I think."

"I've never heard of that name around Forks," Sam said.

"She's not from Forks, she's from South Bend."

"That's practically two and a half hours away. What's she doing all the way up here?"

"Her and her cousin are some sort of close friends with Christa Swan so they visit her everyday after school," Quil said.

As I looked over to where Quil was while he was speaking, I realized just how close he was to the fallen tree. He was maybe three feet away and if Sam, Jared, and the other man hadn't come…well I could only assume the worst.

"She hangs with Christa Swan?" The third man asked.

"Yah, Paul," Quil said and I assumed that Paul was the third man.

"Well that's not good," Paul said…wait a minute! What did he mean by "not good?"

"Paul," Sam turned around and hissed at Paul.

"They might as well know," He replied.

"What do you mean by not good?" Embry said, asking the question in my head.

"Well," Sam huffed," We've been picking up some…strange activity around Christa's house."

My heart dropped; did he just say strange activity? But that's impossible he's human! Christa has no neighbors and most of the area around her house is forest, how would they be able to watch her?

"Strange activity?" Embry questioned.

"Yes…it's complicated to explain but we've been seeing strange…lights, or something, from within the woods and they seem to be coming from the territory around Christa's house. There are also some other things but we're still not sure about those."

"What?" Jacob asked.

"Look just keep an eye out around her house, okay?" Sam asked.

"Sure, sure. Whatever."

They're…on to us. But it seemed so impossible; I mean they're human, right? And if they've been noticing, could it be possible that other people have to? How is it possible to know?

"Look whatever this freaky crap is around Christa's house must have some sort of normal explanation," Embry said.

"And if it is something more, well what can you expect? She's Bella's sister," Quil said. What does Christa's sister have anything to do with this? I crawled back so that my head wasn't visible through the tree branches and I couldn't see them anymore so I listened carefully as their conversation continued.

"I guess so," Sam replied, "Anyway I want to here more about Seth."

"Do we always have to go back to that topic?" Embry moaned.

"Somebody's a little bit jealous," Paul muttered.

"No," Embry said annoyed, "When I find the girl I find the girl, and she's going to have pretty brown freckles and sunshine blond hair and she will have been worth waiting for-"

"Why do you always assume your true love is going to be blonde with freckles?" Jacob asked.

I thought for a second, I had sunshine blonde hair and brown freckles adorned across my cheeks, but I wouldn't necessarily call them pretty. And why would anyone think I was pretty anyway?

"Do you have a girl in mind?" Quil asked curiously.

"Well yah, there is this one girl," Embry replied. Even though I knew there was a small chance it was me (I mean he probably didn't even know I existed), I listened closely.

"Alana Murphy," Embry said and every man around him groaned while my heart dropped. Why would I even care if he liked me anyway? Maybe I'm just desperate.

"Haven't you had a crush on her for six years?" Sam said exasperated.

"Dude you really need to broaden your horizons," Jacob teased.

"Well guess what? I have a date with her next Friday so y'all can shut up."

"Yah okay, she probably doesn't even think it's a date," Jared laughed.

"Shut up," Embry muttered.

"Why don't we go for a run like good old times?" Sam suggested.

"Okay," Jacob said followed by mumbled responses from the rest of the boys (Embry's was grouchiest).

I waited patiently-still hidden behind the dead tree-for the six of them to leave. There were no footsteps, but I heard something like the sound of shredding and then heavy stomping. I peered my head over the dead tree and found that Jacob, Embry, and rest were all gone.

Just then a heavy raindrop plopped onto my head, followed by many more, and before I could tell I was being poured on. Before my brain could think, my legs were pulling me towards my car. I had a lot to tell Christa, or rather Christa had a lot to tell _me_.

* * *

**Author's Note: Oh Ellie, don't you know it's bad to eavesdrop on people's conversations? You might hear something you wish you hadn't…**

**Anyway, I have official update days! The next update will be next Friday and I will have to update every other Friday after that. So one update per two weeks. I know it's painful but school is going to take a toll on me this year and I'm thankful I have time to write fanfiction at all. Maybe after I'm done with tennis season I'll change it to every Friday, MAYBE!**

**REMEMBER TO REVIEW! PLEASE!**

**-J.J.**


	8. What You Didn't Know

**Chapter 8:What You Didn't Know**

_Christa_

"So did Dominic really get his butt kicked by a little girl?" Jericho.

"She's not a little girl, she's my niece," I retorted, "And what she did was irrational and Dominic was caught off guard."

"Yeah, whatever. I can't believe I missed it." I rolled my eyes and continued with watching the Oprah Winfrey show while sipping a glass of iced, sweet tea and sat wrapped in a knitted blanket while the harsh rain pounded on my roof.

"You're niece must be pretty tough then for a small teenager," Jericho commented.

"I suppose," I said and shrugged like it was no big deal that a girl could easily slam a grown boy to the floor. I didn't necessarily like lying to my friends like Jericho, but sometimes it was better if some secrets were left undiscovered, especially for Nessie's sake.

"So anything else interesting happen while I was fixing your keyboard?"

"Not much after we found out that Victor could have a second accomplice."

"You worry too much, the witch that found Dominic might not even have been working with Victor."

"And how would you know?"

"Cause maybe Victor stole Dominic from her or something."

"Wouldn't you know? You were already with Victor when Dominic came."

"Well not really. One day Victor left the house, was gone for a few hours, then returned with Dominic while he was unconscious and said that we weren't to ask any questions about him."

"So then you think Dominic was stolen?" I asked.

"I believe it's a possibility."

"But still…"

"Look," Jericho took my hand, "We don't know who she is and unless she starts bothering us then she isn't a problem. So maybe we should just forget about her for now and if she pops back up we'll handle her. Now stop thinking about her and stop worrying so much."

"I suppose your right," I mumbled.

"Could you at least smile for me, poppet?" I looked at Jericho bemused.

"Did you just call me poppet?" I asked.

"Yah I suppose. I was living in England before the whole Victor situation so…yah," Jericho mumbled. That still doesn't explain why he called me poppet.

"So," I said awkwardly as I noticed Jericho smiling at me, "Has Ellie come home yet?"

"I don't know."

"She's been gone for a awhi-"

_BAM!_

Speak of the devil.

* * *

_Ellie_

I slammed the front door to Christa's cottage open before I could worry about breaking it. Conveniently, Christa was already standing in the living room so I didn't have to go around the house looking for her.

"My Gosh," Christa said exasperated, "Can't anyone enter this house today without attacking or breaking something?"

"I need to talk to you," I said.

"No, you need a towel," Christa grumbled. She was obviously more concerned about me dripping water on to her nice, hardwood floor than the deathly pale expression on my face.

"No, I mean I _really _have to talk to you. It's an emergency," I pleaded and Christa huffed.

"What's it about?" Jericho asked, I hadn't even noticed him.

"I need to talk to her _alone_," I hissed and Jericho backed off into the kitchen and muttered something that sounded like "women."

"What's this about," Christa asked serious, "And will you shut the dang door?"

I slammed the door closed with the same force I used to open it and huffed for what I had to say next:

"People are on to us."

"What?"

"People. Are. On. To. Us."

"Who? What do you mean?"

"They could see you use your magic outside from your house. Or maybe they've been seeing Dominic and Jericho. Either way you've got to be more inconspicuous when using magic. They're watching us from now on and they could expose us if they find out."

"WHO?"

"I don't know these…Quileute boys," I said and noticed Christa relax a bit as she contemplated something.

"What kind of Quileute boys?" Christa asked.

"Huh?"

"What kind? Like were they tall, heavily built kind of boys?"

"Uh…yah. I think their names were Sam, Jared, and Paul. They seem to be friends with Jacob and Seth's other friends."

"Oh," Christa said nonchalantly, "Well this is…interesting."

"What? Christa we have to do something."

"I was only really expecting Jacob's pack to find out about us," Christa muttered and I froze. _Pack_, again with that word. What did it mean?

"What are you not telling me Christa?" I demanded.

"I'm really sorry Ellie," Christa said, "I should have told you and Sage, but I thought you guys would be better off if you didn't know."

"What is it?" I cried.

"There's a…wolf pack in the Quileute tribe lands. Two actually."

"Wolves…?" I muttered, not actually processing the word.

"Yes wolves, counting both packs there are seventeen wolves," Christa said nonchalantly.

"There. Are…. werewolves," I stuttered. I felt my hands shake as I imagined them in my head. Horse-sized wolves with blood and dirt smudged fur, fangs like saber-toothed tigers, sharp claws that could dent any metal, and large, piercing, yellow eyes…

"Not those kinds of wolves," Christa said, as if she could read my mind, "They're not like the kind of wolf that attacked you a few years ago."

"Then what are they?" I spat.

"Shape shifters."

"Shape shifters?"

"Shape shifters that turn into wolves."

"Isn't that worse?"

"No of course. Why would you think that?"

"Because they're predators! They. Eat. Humans!" I silently screeched so Jericho couldn't hear.

"They don't kill humans, they protect them. They protect the tribe of La Push and towns surrounding it from danger."

"And what sort of danger would a small town be in peril of to need the help of seventeen vicious, oversized wolves?" I sneered.

"Well any sort of danger, but their main concern is to destroy any vampires that come on their land."

"Vampires?"

"Yes, that's what I said."

"They live to kill…vampires." I lifted my eyebrows.

"That is their sworn duty."

"I doubt they haven't killed or maimed one or a couple of humans."

"They haven't. Go try and find a human that has."

Just then, from the kitchen, I heard the front door swish open and the sound of light footsteps come in. I heard Sage greet the house and fling of her shoes while Jericho greeted back and ask if she was okay. Even though her voice was muffled by the closed door separating us, I could hear that Sage's voice didn't have the usual optimism in it and seemed rather melancholy.

"We'll discuss this another time," Christa said.

"Wait," I said and grabbed her arm, "I'll do it."

"You'll do what?"

"I'll find a human they killed or harmed."

"And how do you suppose you're going to do that?" Christa asked incredulously.

"I'm going to spy on them."

"They've caused us no trouble-"

"I'm not going to be a threat to them. I'm just going to befriend them and find out a thing or two about the wolves if I can. I swear I won't hurt any of them."

"And what do you plan to gain from this."

"I want to make a deal," I announced, "That if I find proof that the wolves can be hostile, then you must convince Sage-using the knowledge I've learned-to break up with Seth. I can tell that he's a wolf."

"Why don't you do it?"

"I can't, she'll think I'm just jealous of Seth, but she has a sort of respect for you and I know she would believe you."

"Alright," Christa said and held out her hand.

"One more thing," I said, "We must tell Sage that Seth is a werewolf."

"I will agree to anything but that," Christa hissed, "It is not in our place to tell Sage that Seth is a shape shifter, only Seth can do that."

"Fine," I spat, "It's a deal."

I grabbed Christa's hand and shook it firmly while I felt a tingly sensation run through my hand and up my arm. The magical of the supernatural world made deals unlike humans. Our deals were unbreakable and if you do try and break your deal you'll be in for severe consequences. Although nothing bad happens to you if the deal ands in the other person's favor so it's not like you have a reason to break your deal.

"You have no idea what you're doing," Christa muttered.

"Then why don't you stop me?" I challenged.

Christa smiled and spoke, "You might actually be doing me a favor."

* * *

Three days later…

_Nahuel_

"And then I said, 'I didn't know you could read," Vincenzo yelled, finishing the comedic story he saying while everyone else in the room laughed including me.

Vincenzo had been lighting up the room for about an hour or so now, telling jokes and stories of his life. Vincenzo turned out to be a friendly sort of fellow as well as his father. Vincenzo lived a more basic life than the Cullens and dwelled in a rural town of Sicily. He and his father worked as farmers for a living and only Vincenzo ever went out into public, mostly because it is was mainly sunny in Sicily and that forbid Marcello, Vincenzo's father, from going out into town.

Marcello had been turned into a vampire twenty years after I was born-my official assumed year of birth was 1850-by chance from a lonely vampire nomad who was looking for love. Vincenzo said things didn't work out and the vampire died. A couple years later Marcello became a vegetarian, and in 1934, Marcello met Vincenzo's mother and she gave birth a year later. Vincenzo has yet to reveal what happened to his mother though…

"Oi, I've heard you tell that story at least ninety times already," Daphne, the newcomer, complained with her thick Australian drawl.

Then there was Daphne; she was a friend of Vincenzo's whom he had met only a couple of years ago. Daphne, obviously, was from Australia. Daphne's father had abandoned her mother the minute she found out she was pregnant so Daphne didn't exactly have as privileged of a childhood. What happened to her mother is also unknown.

"And I'll tell it at least ninety more times before I die," Vincenzo retorted and Daphne rolled her eyes.

"Whatever nong, just don't embarrass yourself," Daphne said.

"You've only been here three hours and you're ready to pick a fight with me. I can't seriously think I'm that annoying."

"I ain't picking a fight!"

"What city in Australia are you from, Daphne?" Renesmee asked.

"Adelaide," Daphne said, turning away from Vincenzo, "In the South Australian territory.

"How did you and Vincenzo meet?"

"Well," Vincenzo said, "I was just farming at home one day when out of nowhere, this lovely lady comes intruding onto my property-"

"It wasn't like that," Daphne interrupted, "I was just visiting the area and I got lost."

"Horribly lost by the way, you ended up seven cities away from your destination-"

"It was my first time out of Australia, give me a break!"

Renesmee and I just sat back and laughed.

"And where's you from?" Daphne asked to me.

"I was originally from the Mapuche territory in Chile, but then I eventually moved to Brazil."

"Why did you move?" Vincenzo asked.

"I was just living too close to my dad and I needed to be further away from him."

"How come?" Vincenzo asked and was lightly slapped on the shoulder by Daphne.

"You don't ask stuff like that. It could be personal," Daphne said and I smiled at her consideration.

"I'll tell you guys another time," I said.

"I'm going to check to see when dinner is," Renesmee said and left her side of the couch to go into the kitchen."

"I quite like it here," Daphne said, "Though I've never met so many vampires in my life."

"Just goes to show how antisocial you are," Vincenzo said which earned a glare from Daphne.

"Whatever nong."

"You guys are interesting," I mused. Three days had passed since I first arrived and things had turned out much better than I thought, with the exception of Leah who had just woken today. I wanted to visit her today because that would be the polite thing to do but the Cullens refused me to because she needed more time to rest.

Ironically enough, that's when Rensmee walked back into the room and whispered something peculiar to me:

"My Aunt Alice needs you to do a favor for her."

* * *

**Author's Note: First of all, let me just say this. I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY THAT I UPDATED AT NINE O' CLOCK AT NIGHT. I'M EXTREMELY SORRY. I've had a tennis game for Tuesday, Wednesday, AND Thursday plus tennis practice and I've been coming home at around six/seven o' clock. Plus I have schoolwork and other stuff so I haven't had a lot of time to write. I had no tennis stuff today so I was going to update earlier, but unfortunately I was literally three seconds late class and said class has the teacher who's favorite word is detention. Then I went out to dinner because my parents are depressed they don't spend enough time with their children anymore and that's how I ended up here.**

**On a second notice, everybody say hello to Daphne! I have no skill on Australian words or slang so Google is my only help so bear with me. **

**Australian slang: Nong- Australian slang for fool.**

**DON'T FORGET TO REVIEW (And I mean more than just Ashlyna reviewing).**

**Next update is the Friday in two weeks.**

**-J.J.**


	9. Unfocused

**Chapter 9: Unfocused**

_Nahuel_

"What does she need me for?" I asked. Renesmee just shrugged her shoulders.

"My aunt just needed to ask something of you," She replied.

I nodded and continued to get up from the couch. I excused myself from Daphne and Vincenzo's conversation, or rather bantering, and proceeded to the kitchen where I assumed Alice was waiting.

And I was correct, Alice was pacing back and forth between the countertops of the kitchen and looked up quickly when I came in.

"Nahuel," She greeted happily and bounced over towards me. "How have you been?"

"Fine," I replied, "I heard you needed my assistance?"

"Uh…yes," Alice said, looking a little bit embarrassed. "It's Leah, she's awake and fully recovered."

"That's wonderful," I said cheerfully but then frowned, "What does this have to do with me?"

"She won't…leave."

"What do you mean? Why is that a bad thing?"

"More specifically," Alice said, "She won't get out of bed. Even though she's healed almost completely and is in fine health but she refuses to move and I'm worried."

"You want me to talk to her?" I asked.

Alice grinned, "Her room is up the stairs and three rooms to the left."

I nodded and proceeded to look for Leah's room. As I went into the living room, I nodded and smiled at the other half-vampires that eyed me curiously and jogged smoothly upstairs to make it seem like I wasn't doing anything important. I counted three doors down to the left and stopped.

I stood outside Leah's room hesitantly, as I was not sure if I should knock or not. Since the door was already slightly ajar I decided to just push it open and hope Leah wouldn't mind.

I opened the door to a room with white-painted walls and light blue carpeting. There were only several pieces of furniture in the room that were all a light colored oak: a vanity, a set of drawers, a small bookshelf, a nightstand with a lamp on it, and finally a bed with white covers and under those covers was a large lump. A large lump I assumed to be Leah.

"Leah?" I whispered. Leah did not reply but I saw her move by just a fragment.

"Leah?" I whispered again.

"Who is it?" Leah whispered menacingly.

"Nahuel," I said, "Don't you remember me?"

"Nahuel?" She questioned. The lump under the covers turned around and Leah slowly pulled the covers off of her torso. She sat up in her bed and her eyes recognized me immediately.

"Oh," she said, "It's you."

"Yah I'm just passing by to see how you are," I said nonchalantly.

"Well," Leah said hesitantly, "Thank you...very much, for saving me but if you don't mind I'm gonna go back to sleep now." Leah began to slowly pull the covers back over her head.

"Wait!" I said, "Alice asked me to retrieve you out of bed."

Leah hissed something unintelligible and spoke, "I told the psychic to give me fifteen minutes."

"Why won't you get up?" I asked. "Are you feeling ill?"

"No," She said, "Just give me a couple of minutes."

I walked over to sit at the end of the bed by Leah's feet and gently poked her leg. She shoved my hand away with her foot and I sighed.

"What are you hiding from?" I asked and Leah forcefully pulled the covers off her torso again.

"Who said I was hiding?" She asked a little bit irritated.

"Isn't that why you won't leave? Cause you're scared of something?"

"No," She muttered but it was easy to see that it was a lie. "Sort of…it's not really any of your business."

"What is it?"

"I said-"

"I'm not leaving till you tell me."

"Well if you're going to be like that…" Leah trailed, "I guess it's just… life sucks and I don't want to deal with it right now."

"So?" I asked, "Life is going to be awful at times but it will always get better eventually."

"It's been _years_ since anything nice happened to me. I think I'm only allowed to be tortured anymore. It's a wonder how I go on."

"What's been troubling you?" I asked sincerely.

"Just…too much. Speaking of recent events however, I practically tore open my leg and…" Leah trailed, but then suddenly her eyes popped open at some sort of realization.

"How long have I been out?" She asked frantically.

"Three days," I said and she worriedly ran her hands through her black, silky hair.

"Have you seen my brother?" She asked and I nodded my head no.

"Ah hell," she muttered and scrambled to get out of bed.

"Tell them I'm on my way out," She hastily said. Leah then opened the window next to the light oak vanity. Before I could say anything else, She jumped out the open window.

I paused in shock for a second before I ran over to the window. Outside, I heard the sound of fabric shredding and a large pound that shook the ground under the Cullen house. When I looked out the window to try and find Leah, I only saw a gigantic grey wolf running away from the house.

* * *

_Christa_

I gently rubbed Sage's back as she fumbled with her phone in front of her. She stabbed at the buttons on the phone and her facial expressions changed from worried to anxious to glum. Finally she sighed and let the phone drop into her lap.

"Has he called back?" I asked Sage. She shook her head no.

"He hasn't called back since the bus incident," She said glum.

"How many times have you called him?"

Sage threw her phone down on the coffee table and let her head collapse into her hands. "That was the nineteenth time I called him," She moaned.

"Give him some time," I suggested, "He's in a rough spot."

"I know," Sage mumbled and lifted her head from her hands, "But I just wish he didn't leave me like this. What if he breaks up with me?" A tear rolled down Sage's cheek.

"There, there," I soothed and wiped away the tear, "Things will look up. I have faith in you two."

"We knew this would come," Dominic said from the couch across the coffee table and I glared at him.

Dominic, Jericho, and I had previously found Sage crying in the living room not long ago and decided to coax out what was bothering her. Obviously it was Seth, like it had been for the past three days and now we sat with her as she attempted to continue getting a hold of Seth. I sat next to Sage while Jericho and Dominic sat across from us on the couch.

"What do you mean?" I hissed.

"She's a witch and he's a human. Not to be offensive, but I don't think these kinds of relationships work out well," He said softly.

"He has a point," Jericho added, "It's only inevitable that they would break up eventually."

"He has no point," I said strongly, "Sage will be able to turn human one day."

"One day is the key word," Jericho mumbled.

I put my hand on Sage's cheek to cause her to look at me. "And if Seth is worth it then he'll wait for her," I spoke.

"Have you gone to his house?" Dominic asked, changing the subject.

"No. Should I?" Sage asked.

"Lets give it another day or two before you go over his house," I suggested and Sage nodded.

"I can't believe he just abandoned you," Jericho mumbled. I was starting to get the impression that he thought of Sage like a little sister.

"He didn't abandon me," Sage proclaimed, "He just didn't want to hurt me."

"Sage, It's your first relationship; first relationships rarely ever go right. You and Seth aren't perfect-"

"That doesn't mean we can't be together."

"You can't ruin yourself like this over some feelings for a boy."

"It's not the same!" Sage shouted, "It's something more than the lovey-dovey feel of a first relationship. I can't explain it and you probably won't understand but I won't-I _can't _leave Seth. He's a human and I'm a witch, so yah of course we aren't perfect and maybe we never will but so what? I can't go the rest of my life not knowing him. Like I said before, there's something inside of me that's attached itself to Seth. I don't know what, why, and how but it has and I don't think I can go another day not seeing him. I don't care what any of you say about him anymore. I'm going to stay by Seth's side whether as a lover, a friend, a sister, or better yet, a protector. And that's final!"

Sage ended her speech with an annoyed grunt; she picked up her cell phone from the coffee table and left to storm down the stairs into the basement.

"Sage!" I called back for her.

"You should have said something," Jericho mumbled.

"Any why's that?" I asked peeved.

"Cause she might throw away her life for this boy!" He replied.

"They are fine, he's only hurt her this one time-"

"And what if he does it again!" Jericho said interrupting me. "What if the next time and he does something to physically hurt her!"

Jericho's comeback reminded me of my argument and deal with Ellie a couple days earlier, but I knew better and I was going to have to keep defending Seth and the wolves until it was time for everybody to know.

"You've met Seth," I said, "He's nothing but an optimistic and kind-hearted boy."

Jericho scowled, "Oh I have met Seth, and I've also seen him too. He may come off as sweet and innocent, but the boy looks like he could crush a car, much less Sage. I wouldn't be so trusting of him."

"Tha-that has nothing to do with anything!"

"Sure of course not," Jericho said before getting up off the couch to follow Sage downstairs.

"I want to help to you know," Jericho grumbled before leaving the room.

I stared blankly at Jericho as he left the room. I did not call back for him nor Sage and with a sigh I laid back into the couch. Maybe I let life get a little stressful. I looked over at Dominic and noticed that he was still watching me.

"Anything you want to add?" I grumbled.

"Not really," he said.

"Leave then if you want."

"There's something else I want to talk about."

"What's there more to talk about?"

Instead of replying, Dominic threw a touch-screen cellphone onto the coffee table and it landed a couple inches from Sage's red Nokia. I remembered instantly that Dominic didn't have a cellphone and looked at him bemused.

"It belongs to Jericho," Dominic said.

"And?" I asked.

"He's been making strange phone calls. Phone calls in the middle of the night when people are supposed to be sleeping."

"You've seen him make these calls?" I asked.

"Yes?"

"And what's your point?"

"My point is that it's suspicious and whenever I ask him about it he denies it."

"Why are you telling me?"

"I think he might be calling you know who."

"Who?"

"The lady who brought me to Victor."

I flinched back in shock. "What makes you think that?"

"Well we can conclude that the lady who found me possibly knew Victor. Jericho has been a wizard for a long time and he was the first Victor got to help him. When I first joined Victor, him and Jericho seemed to be friends rather than just acquaintances. Ever since I told you about the lady and you started to investigate on her, Jericho started doing these midnight calls. Maybe Jericho, Victor, and this lady are all connected somehow."

"Well obviously Jericho and Victor aren't friend anymore and this whole theory of yours still has some gaps in it. Jericho's calls and this lady could all just be coincidental. Besides, I thought you and Jericho were friends; this is a very appalling presumption you're making about him."

"Call her," he said and picked up the phone to give to me.

"Fine," Dominic said nonchalantly before getting up to leave. And with that I was left all alone in the room.

I laid down on the couch and gave my last sigh of the day. I looked at Jericho's phone in my hand and contemplated my next move.

* * *

**Author's Note: So I know this chapter is a little bit rushed and confusing and shorter than usual and I'm sorry but as usual my time to write fanfiction is limited so please don't hate me. And also, I'm going to have to change the update day-AGAIN-since I might have tennis practices and games after school now. Yah I know what you must be thinking: MAKE UP YOUR MIND LADY! Well I'm trying and from now on I'm going to try my best to keep the knew update day to every other Saturday now.**

**As usual, PLEEEEEEAAAAAAAASSSSSSEEEEEE REVIEW! IF YOU DO I MIGHT BE ABLE TO GET THESE CHAPTERS UP WHEN YOU WANT ME TO!**

**-J.J.**


	10. Suspicion and the Beasts

**Chapter 10: Suspicion and the Beasts**

_Ellie_

I stared vacantly at the morose, grey sky. To anyone who didn't live in the north east side of North America, it may seem like an encumbrance to wake up to grey clouds everyday, to a sunless sky that cried because of the dreary reputation it was given. I suppose I felt that way when I had first moved into Washington State. However, once you got used to it, it wasn't so much that is was a bleak sky, rather it was a different sky and it was considered here an oddity to have a constant sun beaming down on you.

I shifted my eyes from they sky to the rest of the setting. It was the same First Beach in La Push that I have been incessantly visiting for almost a couple of weeks now. The same waves rolled and crashed onto the shore and the same chill of the wind made me grit my teeth. It was another day at First Beach…well actually no it wasn't considering I didn't come here today on a whim. I came here with a purpose.

A purpose to meet with a couple of troubling _beasts_.

I had met Seth's "normal friends" Jacob, Quil, and Embry about two days ago, one day after Sage and Seth's supposed fight. Really I should be at Christa's place right now trying to take advantage of the fact that Sage wasn't with Seth or at least try and comfort her from how Seth had hurt her, but I had to do this to keep Sage from being hurt in the future.

Anyway, I had "accidentally" spotted Seth's friends, minus his sister, on the beach that day and had introduced myself as Sage's cousin. That day had really only been us introducing each other and them questioning me on Sage's condition, but it was progress none the less.

They had told me that they hung around the beach often so I had come here everyday and hoped that I would "accidentally" see them again.

Christa hadn't said much more about the beasts after our deal. She just told me of the boundary lines and where they usually roamed. She also told me of which La Push residents were inhuman. She didn't say anything more despite my accusations towards them.

Christa claimed that this deal would only end up proving her right and that it pointless to think of them as enemies. However there was still the question of why she had made the deal with me anyway. I particularly remember her saying something specific after the deal was made; "You might actually be doing me a favor," she had said.

It still didn't make sense to what she would be getting out of this besides making herself look all knowing. Getting close to the wolves somehow must be doing her a favor somehow. I shouldn't speculate more until I got closer to the beasts.

_Snap!_

Speak of the devil.

My remarkable sense of hearing caught the loud snap of a branch or long stick somewhere nearby. I turned around and that's when I saw them, the beasts, the things birthed for violence and bloodshed and had broken the heart of my best friend Sage.

Their entrance wasn't the same as when I had been hiding behind a fallen dead tree while eavesdropping on their conversation; they came out of the forests, not in their true snarling beast forms, but in their human costumes.

When I first turned around, they were merely three little approaching shadows coming from east out of the forest, but now they were quickly getting closer and bigger. The three were the same beasts I had met: Jacob, Quil, and Embry. Jacob was walking casually while Quil and Embry flanked either side of him and followed him with the same precise speed as Jacob.

Soon enough they saw me and slowly recognized me. Embry, the first to recognize me, fell out of line next to Jacob and went ahead of his two friends, his two _beast _friends, to greet me.

"What's up, Ellie?" Embry asked. I was a little bit shocked to find out that the beast cared to remember my name.

"Oh not much," I said and put on a pseudo smile, "What about you?"

"Ah not much either," Embry, the beast, replied and gave a small chuckle.

"How long have you been here?" Embry asked as his friends caught up to him.

"Not long." I had been leaning my shoulder on a tree next to me just now and stood up properly as Quil and Jacob approached.

"Hello Ellie," Both beasts greeted simultaneously.

"Hello."

"Do you come here a lot?" Embry asked.

My phony smile got a tiny bit wider. "Yeah."

"Why?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "I like the scenery. It's peaceful here."

"Something bothering you at home?" Quil asked bluntly and Jacob and Embry shot him wary glances.

"Nothing really," I replied vaguely. _Yah nothing really I wish_, I thought.

"How are Sage and Christa?" Quil asked.

Translation: How's Sage?

"Christa's fine and Sage is…somewhat fine." I bit my lip at the end of the sentence.

"Oh." Quil looked down.

"And how are you guys at home?" I asked.

Translation: How's Seth?

So maybe the only reason I was able to associate with the beasts was because of Sage's relationship with Seth and the only real thing I had talked to them about was the status of my cousin and if Seth was going to visit her soon. They wanted to know about how Sage was, because Seth was too dang selfish to find out himself, and I asked about how Seth was in return.

I didn't really care about Sage's ungrateful and beast boyfriend, but maybe finding out that Seth was recovering from his weird depression state would help Sage shed one less tear over him.

"Everything's getting better but Seth's still kind of out of it. He's really sorry," Quil replied. I gritted my teeth, well maybe I could lie to Sage.

"He wanted us to give you this to give Sage," Jacob said and pulled out of his jean capris pockets (How did the boy wear capris in this weather?) a plain white envelope that had been neatly sealed.

"There's a note for Sage in there," Jacob said. I took the envelope from Jacob as he held it out to me and stuck it in the front pocket of my magenta trench coat.

"I'll be sure to give it to her," I said. Maybe I would give it to her after I read the letter first.

"Do you always stay at First Beach?" Embry asked.

On the inside I didn't want to answer that question. I wanted to tell them all about how Sage, for the past three days, had been repeatedly calling Seth for a reason for his absence and sobbing late at night and barely getting any rest. I wanted to tell them that it was all Seth's fault, and their fault, that my best friend had turned herself into a wreck.

I wanted to, I _really_ wanted to. But I had to focus on becoming friends with these beasts. No matter how much I hated it, it would benefit Sage, and maybe the others, if I won the deal.

"Yeah," I said again with my pseudo smile.

"There are other beaches you know," He replied. I was somewhat happy that at least maybe the beasts did want to be friends with me rather than just use me to find information on Sage.

"Maybe we'll show you one day," Embry said.

"Maybe, is there another beach where the weather is warm for a change?" I asked.

Quil snorted. "Not during this time of year."

"That's too bad. It's healthy to feel actual sunlight once in a while."

"You learn to live without it."

"Have you guys always lived here?" I asked. Three heads nodded simultaneously.

"What about you? Don't you and Sage live in South Bend?" Quil asked.

"Yah."

"Isn't that two and a half hours away from here?"

My smile faltered for a second before I pseudo-smiled again. Yes I suppose it did take that long to get from South Bend to Forks, by car at least. However Sage and me had supernatural ways of transporting between the two towns.

"We have a shorter way of commuting here and there," I simply said. Thankfully the three boys shrugged and moved on.

I decided to ask an investigative question. "Why do you guys always come out of the woods?" I asked and they looked to have been taken off guard.

"What do you mean?" Jacob asked slightly unsure

"It's just that," I started, "When I run into you guys I first see you come out of the woods."

"We go hiking on a trail on our way here," Jacob answered smoothly.

"Maybe you can show me one day," I said.

We were silent for a couple of seconds before somewhat of an awkward air filled between us. The awkwardness, however, was short because my ears suddenly picked up the sound of footsteps hitting the sand.

I turned around and noticed a young woman-who looked like one of the natives of La Push-holding the hand of a young girl about seven or eight years old, who I presumed must be her daughter or some relative. The woman and the little girl were walking towards us but I didn't think they were actually meeting us until I heard Quil shout.

"CLAIRE!" Quil shouted happily. I turned towards him and noticed a beam of happiness radiating from his face and a wide smile growing that had not been there previously. Before another second could pass, Quil was sprinting towards the woman and the little girl.

"Qwil!" The little girl screamed and let go of her mother's (?) hand to sprint towards Quil. The girl didn't have to run seven feet before Quil got to her and picked her up and spun her around several times before putting her back down.

"So…they know each other?" I asked. Jacob and Embry chuckled.

"Yah," Embry said, "Quil is sort of her…babysitter."

"Babysitter?"

"He's taken care of her since she was two; Quil always loves seeing Claire."

"Interesting," I mumbled as I watched Quil pick up and play with Claire. He seemed to be more into Claire than any father or brother could.

"Who's this?" An unfamiliar voice asked. I turned around to see who it was; I immediately regretted it. As soon as I saw her, my smile faltered and I had to force a good poker face on to keep my eyes from bulging out of their sockets.

It had been the woman who was with Claire except now I got a better view of her face and what I didn't see before. On one side of her face, she was a beautiful woman with a warm smile, flawless tan skin, and a calm expression. The other side of her face would have been just as beautiful and a perfect mirror image to other half, however the other half of the woman's face was twisted and contorted.

Half of this poor woman's face had been ruined by three asymmetrical scars that started from her forehead, down her cheek and part of her chin, touched part of her neck, and finished at her shoulder and part of her arm. The scars seemed to be old and would permanently disfigure this woman's wonderful face.

"This is Ellie," Embry introduced me to the scarred woman. Embry gave me a small push from the back and I quickly stuck out my hand in front of me.

"I'm Emily," the scarred woman said and gently shook my outstretched hand with her own.

"Its nice to meet you," I said politely.

"It's nice to meet you as well," Emily said with a smile on her partially demented face. Emily suddenly turned her head away to stare at Quil and Claire.

"Get back here!" Emily yelled as Claire chased Quil down the beach while he "ran" away from her. Emily then followed Claire as she chased Quil.

"Is Emily Claire's mom?" I asked.

"She's her aunt actually," Embry muttered.

"May I ask about the…uh…um…"

"Emily's scars?"

"Yah."

"Embry," Jacob hissed.

"What?" Embry asked confused.

"Lets not go into that with Ellie yet," Jacob muttered low so he thought I wouldn't be able to hear.

"It's fine; practically everyone knows."

"What's up?" I interrupted.

"Emily's scars…" Embry started, "She was mauled a couple years ago.

"Mauled?" I leaned forward curiously.

"By a bear."

"In these woods?"

"No, somewhere else. Bears don't really live around here."

"Oh, then what does live in the forest?"

Both Embry and Jacob furrowed their eyebrows. "What do you mean?" Jacob asked.

"Is there anything dangerous in these woods?" I elaborated; maybe it was too soon to ask these questions but to them I could be asking something harmless.

"Well no," Jacob said, "But that doesn't mean you should go wandering around in the forest."

"Like the way you do?" I retorted.

"We don't get lost like an outsider like you would." I pouted for a second before moving on.

"That's weird I thought there was."

Jacob gained an inquiring look on his face. "Do you see any weird stuff going on around Christa's house?" He asked.

I quietly inhaled in surprise; I finally got now that there was a second reason for them talking to me besides finding about Sage's wellbeing.

"No," I said a little too quickly.

"Are you sure?" Embry asked.

"Yes."

"Okay then."

And to think that the beasts actually wanted to be genuinely friends with me, of course they were still using me. Although Seth and Sage were in a relationship (?), the beasts were still onto Christa and her witchcraft. They were waiting for a slip up, and if I did they would find out about not just about Christa, but Sage and me and the rest. They were using me, but I suppose that was okay because I was using them too, and I knew that I was being used.

We paused from our conversation as we heard a small girl's squeal. I looked over to see Claire try to kick sand onto Quil as an attempt to bury him, but her small size against his huge height only got him ankle deep in a pile of sand. Emily stood close by to them, chuckling in amusement.

I found myself studying Emily's scars again. The scars pulled weirdly at the features of her face; one scar pulled down her right eye to give it a droopy sort of shape while another scar pulled down a corner of her mouth to give her a lopsided grimace and the scars in total made dull red, river-like patterns across her right cheek. The scars were truly one of the most horrific human features I had ever seen that made me pity poor Emily with true sincerity.

Bears, eh? Yeah right.

* * *

**Author's Note: I think I'm subconsciously making an effort to torture at least one character per chapter. Oh well, maybe you all secretly enjoy it.**

**So I know the story seems a bit slow, but you'll have to bear with me cause life is extremely busy for me right now. The good thing at least is that tennis is almost over for me and that's what's most time consuming for me and then maybe some productivity will get done.**

**And as always, PLEASE REVIEW! It doesn't hurt to show some appreciation for what effort I put into this story.**

**DISCLAIMER: (Why do I put this in all caps?) I DON'T OWN TWILIGHT! TWILIGHT BELONGS TO THE WONDERFUL STEPHENIE MEYER AND I SHARE NONE OF THE PROFITS WITH HER. ALL I OWN IS THE CHARACTERS I CREATED AND YOUR REVIEWS!**

**-J.J.**


	11. Ignorance

**Chapter 11: Ignorance**

_Sage_

The melody of the Willapa River was a unique one; it did not have the cacophony of a babbling brook nor the discord of a raging rapid. It was a calm, subtle flow thats even stream of moving water had a light pitter-patter tune, and combined with the chirping grasshopper and hooting owl created a peaceful lilt to fall asleep to at night. The melody of the Willapa River was the sound of nature being at peace with itself.

My current mindset was not like the Willapa River.

There was a fog that rolled over the Willapa Bay and the river. The fog was anything but transparent and its eerie presence kept the people of South Bend near the edges of the town. If you were to sail a boat on the bay or river when the fog came then you would surely get lost. In the fog there was no south, north, east, or west, there was no left or right and maybe there was no definite up or down. The fog was a parallel world within our universe.

My current mindset was the fog.

My mind felt distant from anything else, a separate realm. My confusing and conflicting thoughts finally came together to form a bemusing and directionless haze that I could only stumble through and get lost in. However, in my mind, the sun's intense shine broke through the fog and its radiation gave me a will to try and escape from the foggy maze. The sun had a face; the face had glowing russet skin, short-cropped black hair, and sincere brown eyes.

"…_What I've got's full stock _

_Of thoughts and dreams that scatter _

_You pull them all together _

_And how I can't explain _

_Well, well you _

_You make my dreams come true _

_Well, well, well you _

_You make my dreams come true…"_

Irony must also be visible within the fog.

I was already sprawled over my queen-sized bed and turned my head a whole ninety degrees to glance over at my mahogany nightstand. On my nightstand, my phone was blasting You Make My Dreams Come True by Hall & Oates, the ringtone I had set up for when Ellie called me. Ellie had a liking to old & classic rock that most people didn't have and had an adoration for the dynamic duo that is Hall & Oates.

I didn't pick up the phone to know what Ellie wanted, I already knew. I unfolded myself from my evergreen bed sheets and red velvet quilt and lifted my head from the matching red velvet pillow with evergreen embroidery.

I stumbled out of my bed and out the doorway. I dragged my feet across the polished, wooden floorboards down the hallway until I came to a stop at the spiral staircase at the end of the hallway and proceeded to go down the stairs.

The manor that Ellie and I lived in belonged to Ellie's mother, Lucille LaBow and the rest of the LaBow family: Ellie's sister Tiffany, her two cousins, and the other witch Rita, all of which had moved to Versailles the supposed "witch capital" of the world. Versailles was where the witch queen or, more formally, Queen of the Sorcerers lives and any clan of witches or wizards that moves to Versailles try to gain the queen's friendship, and therefore political power.

So the LaBow family had left this grand mansion of three floors, seven bedrooms, a dozen bathrooms, a spotless kitchen, a couple of entertainment rooms such as a home movie theater and an extensive library, Lucille LaBow's old, cluttered home office, and a grand living room.

Through out the house, chandeliers hung in the living room and in the master bedrooms, you could find tapestries with designs of monarchs from different eras hanging in the hallways, and oil paintings of LaBow ancestors hung over the grand fireplace at the front of living room. Overall, it was an enlarged Victorian mansion that stood firm and proud next to the Willapa River and thats interior, however, resembled the classical look of the Renaissance era with its Greek columns that supported the house and its ornate, well-carved furniture.

As I stumbled to the front door, I thought even as grand of a house this was it didn't feel like home. Maybe because the LaBow family was constantly moving so there really was no permanent home. That was my previous assumption; now I began to realize that it was because my true home was far away from here, in the arms of the Quileute boy that I loved so much…

I reached the front door and twisted the knob of the deadbolt before jerking the wooden door open. Outside the door stood Ellie with her cellphone pressed firmly against her ear. When she saw me she pressed the end call button on her phone and immediately the home phone stopped ringing.

"Hey Sage," Ellie said nonchalantly, however her eyes scanned me over with worry. From my frizzy hair that was loosening out of its lengthy braid, to my long-sleeved, red shirt and purple, knee-length skirt that both had gained crumples and wrinkles from me laying and tossing around in bed, to my bloodshot eyes that also had dark bags, I wasn't exactly in my normal composure or attire.

"You're a bit late," I said, "What time is it?"

"Seven o' clock on the dot," Ellie said with an uneasy smile.

"What were you doing?" I asked hoarsely.

"Nothing much. Just hanging with some people I know."

"What people do you know?"

For this, Ellie had no reply and her mouth went into a thin, straight line. She stepped into the mansion and closed the door before any cool air could escape in. There was a pause before Ellie reached into one of the pockets of her magenta trench coat and pulled out a crumpled envelope.

"It's for you," She said and shoved the envelope in front of my face.

I took the envelope. "Who's it fro-"

"It's from Seth," Ellie interrupted.

I went to sit on the bottom step of the spiral staircase a couple feet away and tore the envelope open before I could think about what could be inside. I carefully read Seth's familiar, neat handwriting:

_Dear Sage,_

_I'm sorry about what happened on the bus (really I am!) and I hope you can forgive me. I get it if you can't; no good man should ever have abused you like that, especially the woman he loves dearly. You don't need to call me anymore; if you want to yell at me I'd rather we'd arrange it so you can yell at me in person. Again I'm extremely sorry for three days ago and my one hope is that in the future we can be friends again._

_With Love and Sincerity,_

_Seth Clearwater_

"I bet it sounds pathetic," Ellie said a minute after I finished reading it.

"You don't need to pretend," I said, "I know you already read it."

Ellie snickered, "He's an idiot if he thinks your going to fall for his I'm-oh-so-innocent act."

"Maybe you're wrong," I mumbled.

"Sage," Ellie hissed, "Don't be thoughtless."

"What I mean is maybe it's not an act," I said firmly, "Maybe he's actually being sincere."

Ellie turned her back towards me and started walking down the hall. She stopped at a doorway at the left in the middle of the hallway; it was the door to the living room and she sauntered right in without looking at me. I got up from the staircase and followed after her.

The living room's dimensions were thirty feet in length, twenty feet in width, and fourteen feet in height, making it the largest room in the house. There were four couches, all hardwood with swirly and floral carvings engraved in them that were topped with fluff-stuffed silk cushions; two couches were parallel to the two other couches and they faced each other. Two mahogany coffee tabled were between the two parallel rows of couches and there was a large burgundy carpet under them.

The two width walls had three bookshelves on each, making the living room also a library. The floor was made from dark, cherry oak wood and the walls were plaster with dark scarlet colored wallpaper. A giant, golden chandelier with crystal beads hung from the center of the ceiling. At the front of the room, on a length wall, was a grand fireplace that covered one sixth of the wall and had a marble wall as a border around the black-caged fireplace.

Ellie sat on the first couch on the left; she was leaning back in the silk cushions with look of exhaustion on her face. I sauntered over and sat on the couch next to her.

There was a moment of silence between us. In the almost decade that I've known Ellie, very few silences ever occurred between us. Ellie was my first friend when I joined the LaBow family and the only one of the LaBows that I consider family to me. She was the only reason I wasn't wandering somewhere in the streets right now and I couldn't even say hello properly to her right now.

"When did you become so masochistic?" Ellie asked.

"I don't understand," I mumbled, "You want to elaborate?"

Ellie sighed and spoke, "You know I once heard that if you put a frog in a pot of boiling water that it can just jump right out. However, If you put a frog in a pot of cool water and slowly boil it, the frog won't be able to detect danger and it'll die being cooked alive."

"So…?"

"You're that little frog, Sage," Ellie said exasperated, "And Seth's been slowly boiling you alive and these past days are the part where you die."

"But-"

"But you're different Sage, always have been and you can still jump out of the pot and save yourself, save your heart."

"I don't need saving," I said sharply, "Especially from you."

"Me?" Ellie's face suddenly turned furious and her soft voice had a screech-like pitch. "What have I done? All I ever do is help you!"

"You have never been supportive of me and Seth, ever!"

"Why should have I? You'd still be stuck here, if not worse, and Seth would still be scum."

In a flash, I was standing up looking down menacingly at Ellie. "You better take that BACK!

"I can't take back the truth," Ellie hissed.

"How could you?" I screeched, "After all this time you hated him, and you never said a word about it to me. You've just been waiting for the right time to undermine our relationship, haven't you?"

"I'm just protecting you! I would never want see you hurt like this!"

"You're a fat liar Melrose Elliot LaBow."

Ellie's voice swiftly went back to calm, "Sage, you're my best friend. The only friend I love; we're like sisters. I don't want to see your heart break-"

"-And yet you're breaking it with every word you say," I interrupted, now bawling out tears with little control over my voice. "You're right, we are like sisters, but you're going to tear us apart like this."

"I'm not tearing us apart. Seth is; he's been undermining our relationship. Can't you see what he's done to us?! What he's doing to you?! Can't you see that he is a selfish, ungrateful, deceitful, corrupt…BEAST?!"

I was no longer in the living room; a split-second after Ellie finished her statement I ran away with my hands over my ears with a waterfall running down my blotchy cheeks. I tripped several times up the spiral staircase and down the hallway before cannonballing into my bed.

I wanted to shout into my pillow, but nothing but choked sobs came out. I felt like my heart had been thrown into a paper shredder and was slowly being grated into teeny-tiny pieces. I wanted to sew it back together but whenever I tried now the thread somehow fell apart. I needed someone to fix my heart, I needed Seth…

My phone started to ring and pang of sudden rage flooded through me. If Ellie thought calling me to go back down there was going to work she had another thing coming.

I let the phone ring for ten seconds before it stopped. I waited for a second call but, after a minute one did not come. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion, I always thought of Ellie as persistent and stubborn despite what she thought of herself. I reached over to grab my cellphone and I nearly gasped as I read what the screen said:

**One missed call from: Seth Clearwater.**

* * *

_Renesmee_

"You'll be come back soon," I said, "Right?"

"Of course," Vincenzo said, "There's just a little emergency back home. It's usually a regular thing. I'll be back in two weeks, more or less."

"Bye Vincenzo," I said and I gave a soft squeeze as a hug to my new friend.

"Goodbye Renesmee," Vincenzo said and returned my hug. He then moved to Daphne with toothy smile.

"Goodbye Daphne," He said and gave her a pat on the shoulder.

"See yah Vinnie," She replied.

Daphne and I watched as Vincenzo and Marcello carried their luggage into the trunk of their yellow Fiat. They gave us one last wave before climbing into their minuscule car and driving away.

"Hey Daphne," I said-now sitting on the couch with Daphne, "What does Vincenzo mean by emergency?" I asked.

"Oh, well you see Vinnie lives by Mt. Edna in Sicily, which is one of the most active volcanos in the world. So a mate of Vinnie's calls him up when they think the volcano's goin' to blow up. It happens a lot when Vinnie visits me so he always has to leave early. I always tell the bloke he should move but he never listens. He wants to stay on his homeland or somethin' like that. I always get into a blue with him whenever he insists I visit him."

"He seriously won't leave?"

"Nope, and I've told him millions of times that it be safer to live fifty k's south of Woop Woop."

I gave Daphne a peculiar look and my brows furrowed in confusion at her Australian dialect.

"Sorry," she said, "What I mean is that it would be safer to live in the middle of nowhere."

"It's okay. I actually like that phrase: 'Fifty k's south of Woop Woop?'"

"You can really use any number for distance but yah that's how an Aussie would say it." Daphne said with shy grin, "Sorry I'm still workin' on the American accent."

"It's fine," I mumbled and turned my head as I heard Nahuel walk into the room.

"Hey Nahuel, are you staying for the night?" I asked.

"Yes," He replied, sitting on the couch with us, "Thanks for letting me stay by the way."

"No problem, what about you Daphne?"

"No, I'm staying at a hotel."

"Well you're welcome to stay here anytime you want."

"Actually," Daphne said, " This is going to seem random but I have a question, for Nahuel." Nahuel perked up at the sound of his own name.

"Nessie's told me you have sisters. 'Ow come they didn't come?"

"I don't live with them," Nahuel said, "They live with my father."

"I don't mean to be rude," Daphne mumbled, "I mean I've never met my ding bat of a father and I hope I never have to, but your siblings are like you, half-human half vamp. Don't you ever visit them?"

"Of course I do," Nahuel said, "But it really depends on the sibling though. My eldest sister, Serena, I don't like and therefore don't let her visit often-the girl is too much like my father-then there's my other older sister, Maysun, that I'm on good terms with and I accept her visits. At last there's Jennifer, my only little sister, that I visit frequently and is the only sister that my Aunt Huilen likes, or prefers me to my father."

"Ah, sorry I had to ask; it's just that my siblings aren't half-vamp like me so I was curious about what it would be like."

Both Nahuel and I stared at Daphne in surprise. "You have…siblings?" I asked.

"Well," Daphne frowned, "We're not _full_ siblings; they're human and I'm not. It's sort of complicated."

"How many?" Nahuel asked.

"Two...well I used to have three siblings. My two little siblings are all grown up now so I only see them from time to time."

"I don't mean to be rude," Nahuel said, "But what happened to the other one?"

"She's…gone."

"She's dead?" I asked.

"No."

"She ran away?" Nahuel asked.

"I don't know," Daphne said, I thought I saw a tear in her eye, "I just know that one day, many years ago, she just…vanished."

* * *

**Author's Note: Before anything, let me explain my way of writing for Daphne's Australian, or Aussie, accent. I'm not writing in an actual accent, because I can't confuse those of you who aren't Aussie (for instance, In Australia they might say, "How are you" as "Ow-yar-goin?"). So I'm going to use Australian phrases and words to show Daphne's dialect without being stereotypical (like putting "mate" at the end of every sentence). Here's some translations:**

**Aussie- Australian, an australian**

**Bloke – guy**

**Blue – fight**

**Ding bat – literally means fool but I think it's more offensive then that in Australia**

**(My favorite) Fifty k's south of Woop Woop – In the middle of nowhere (not quite sure if it's common or not)**

**And again, I'm sorry this update is coming a little bit late in the day but I have an explanation. Once upon on a time, there was a quite place that had little crime and had **_**mild**_** weather. But then one day…BAM! We've become the bull's-eye for a raging hurricane that cable news has been calling…Frakenstorm. So all day I've been preparing for Hurricane Apocalypse 2012. Oh, the best part is I might not have power for a week! Wish me luck and I hope I'll be able to update in time (and create better chapter titles)!**

**PLEASE REVIIIIIEEEEEEWWWWW (I'M NOT SURVIVE THE NEXT FEW DAYS)!**

**-J.J.**


	12. Complications With The Heart

**Chapter 12: Complications With The Heart**

_Christa_

I had always been a light sleeper. I mean I was a late sleeper-never dared to call myself an early bird-but the sound of a penny being dropped could surely wake me up. Unlike my sister who could, er, _used to_ sleep through anything, even her own sleep talking. So of course growing up I refused to sleep in the same room with someone who talked to themselves.

Nor could I sleep in my room in my cottage when Jericho and Dominic were fighting in the basement.

I had woken out of my peaceful slumber in the middle of the night when I heard someone stomp their foot, followed by a beastly yell. I shot upright in my bed thinking someone had broken into the house before I recognized the yell as Dominic's.

Already in a grouchy mood, I shuffled my feet out of my bedroom to go investigate the commotion, smack the sense into two rowdy boys, and force them to go to sleep in their shared bed in the basement. However, as I approached the basement door, I stopped cold when I head what Dominic said next.

"Are you stupid? You traitor!"

"Like I care anymore," Jericho spat back at Dominic.

"But you were her friend-"

"If she's my friend, then why is she just using me?" I flinched at Jericho's insult.

"She's not using you," Dominic whimpered.

"Don't you get it?" Jericho hissed, "Why else does she want us to stay here? She's just trying to use us as pawns to get what she wants."

"We're not pawns, she's the leader of our clan and we're helping her with the clan."

"You're clan. Not mine."

By now I was more confused than shocked; why was Jericho planning on leaving me when he was so kind and (dare I say it) _affectionate _towards me? Didn't he also care about Sage and Ellie? Maybe if I talk to him-

"I'll tell her!" Dominic threatened, "I'll tell her you're leaving."

"You're not going to do that," Dominic said with an underlining confidence.

"You going to stop me?"

"You won't, because I could go upstairs and tell Christa that _you're _a traitor and she would believe me."

There was a pause; it was short but felt longer from my suspense and I was afraid enough that they would able to hear me breathe. I hushed my breath and strained to hear even a whisper.

"Fine," Dominic muttered, "But this isn't over."

"It is for now," Jericho mumbled back.

For a moment everything was quiet as I fully digested everything that was said. A part of me contemplated that since the argument sounded like gibberish to me that I hadn't woken up and I was still sleeping and this was all a really weird dream. That part, however, was proven mistaken by my senses telling me that everything I was hearing, seeing, and feeling felt too true to life to be considered a dream. Which means that Jericho really was leaving here, leaving me.

My drowsy brain brought me back to focus when I heard someone climbing up the basement steps. I panicked, but instead of walking quietly back to bed, I sprinted/tip-toed as fast as I could away from the basement towards the back of the room and out the backdoor.

Now outside in my meager pajama tank and pajama sweatpants with the chilly air biting at my skin, I instantly regretted going outside. My breaths looked like clouds being puffed out of my mouth and I futilely rubbed my arms with my hands to try and ward off goose bumps. The sound of my own teeth chattering seemed louder than my thoughts but I still pondered anyway.

I didn't know what I had done to make Jericho think I was-no pun intended-wicked. I couldn't recall a time I ever seemed manipulative to Jericho and Dominic, or even Sage and Ellie, and Jericho never seemed to complain before. And why was Dominic calling him a traitor?

Just because Jericho wanted to leave did not make him a traitor. Maybe Jericho was simply seeing hospitality has something like his experience with Victor, and maybe I assumed that Jericho wanted to stay here, stay here with me.

But it all doesn't matter because I didn't own Jericho, or anyone, and unlike what Dominic said, this was not a clan. I was not a leader, and everyone else that stayed or frequently visited here was a friend, and Jericho was my friend, even if he hated me.

I sighed.

Who was I kidding? Truth is maybe I did control everyone; Nessie hadn't visited in days, Sage and Ellie are rarely at the house anymore, and Dominic thought he was my servant. Now my controlling side didn't want to see Jericho go away because I had grown attached to him and I wasn't willing to lose him to just yet.

Wasn't willing to let him leave.

I would have pondered more, but something was standing near me in my peripheral vision. It was a person definitely, that was standing by the edge the forest behind my house. She-I recognized it as a young woman-was standing just several feet away, almost behind me. I made no sudden movement at first but then quickly I turned around.

Unfortunately, she reacted too quickly and before I could fully turn around, she vanished. But without a doubt I knew who she was, the girl that was watching me.

It was _her._

I panicked for the second time tonight and clumsily shuffled to the backdoor. I opened the door a little too loudly but without out a second thought I ran into my bedroom…

…Only to stop halfway when I bumped into the chest of a certain traitor.

* * *

_Ellie_

Another unceremonious morning was spent at First Beach in the beasts' domain. It seemed a little early for any of them to arrive but it didn't kill to be sure or to do a little overtime spying. Well actually it could kill if I'm talking about the beasts.

Any who, it's not like I have anywhere else to go. I'm not welcomed anywhere near Sage now after the fight and she's cooped up in her room at home. I tried to speak to her earlier this mourning but when I entered her room she just glared at me, and didn't speak, which was basically her way of kicking me out of the house. I'll attempt to go back later tonight once common sense knocked into her.

It still amazed me how my attempt at reasoning with her backfired. Maybe I was too subtle, maybe I should have actually smacked her then, then again I probably wouldn't have the heart to. But how could she be so naïve? The almost four day absence, the unreturned calls, the sappy letter, I found it pathetic and would still if he wasn't a beast.

I considered almost idly if these beasts had the power to hypnotize or mind control because Sage definitely acted like she was under a spell. Yes she was naturally over-confident and a little bit frivolous, but I wouldn't call her oblivious and immature. Sage was too good to be anything negative. In a way, I could almost call my best friend perfect, but Seth was slowly, like slow boiling water, killing that perfection.

I knew something in Sage changed, I don't what exactly but since the day of their first date, Sage seemed different.

I remembered Sage mumbling to me about Seth one day and it was about how it was more than love, how they were drawn to each other in every way possible and it was hard seeing someone else as more important than each other. She said it was impossible to tear them apart.

Definitely some sort of hypnosis. Maybe Christa can make some sort of cure.

"Ellie!"

I turned around in my seat on the fallen oak tree that I usually sat on (so many fond memories) to find a familiar man running towards me from far off in the horizon. My eyes, not being as great as my ears, squinted and waited until the man was close enough from me to recognize. Once I did recognize him however, I gritted my teeth.

I had always seen Jacob (one of the beast "alphas") with his two best friends, Thing 1 and Thing 2 and I was pretty sure that the constricting chain that bonded Sage and Seth together was the same chain that bonded the beastly trio of friends. So it was weird to find Thing 1 without Thing 2 and/or Jacob.

"Hey Embry," I said with my pseudo smile once he was sauntering his last few steps towards me. He ended up standing up in front of me without looking the slightest bit breathless from his run. I wondered if his family just accepted him as being superfluous in skills or just found him a weirdo.

"Hey Ellie," He replied with a polite smile. For a second, a gleam past through his eyes, I didn't know what, but it was enough to melt my pseudo smile.

"Where are the other two musketeers?" I asked, referring to the only two friends he had.

"On babysitting duty," Embry mumbled. I raised my eyebrows but he just plopped down next to me on the dead oak. It both disgusted and comforted me that he was sitting within close proximity of me. Disgusting because he was a beast but comforting because some sort of heated radiated off of him that I couldn't help but welcome when I was being bitten by the cool, early March air.

"Who are they babysitting?" I asked.

"Quil's babysitting Claire, you know her from last time, and Jacob's with Nessie," Embry said.

"You have no other friends?" I asked humorously while I raised my eyebrows.

"Everyone's busy with something," Embry said nonchalantly then added, "Besides I knew you would be here." However, as he said that I couldn't but hear something not far away. I wasn't sure from where but it sounded like people were talking. I pushed off as it was probably other tourists.

"Aren't you cold?" I asked accusingly, eyeing his t-shirt and jeans. I myself was wearing thick jeans, a long sleeved shirt, a sweater, and all covered with my heavy, cotton trench coat.

Embry shrugged his shoulders. Great, so the beasts enjoyed the blistering cold weather.

"You have no other friends?" Embry questioned "Besides Christa and Sage."

"They're elsewhere," I said and shrugged, similar to the way he did, even though the answer should have been no.

"So do you and Sage live together?" He asked. I was kind of surprised he didn't immediately change the topic to Sage in general.

"Yes."

"And you're cousins?"

"…Yep."

"Is it just you two?"

"…Yeah."

"Seems cool," Embry said nonchalantly. I was a little bit relieved by his casualty.

"Why do you always come here?" I asked, maybe this place was some sort of headquarters for the beasts.

Embry chuckled. "I live here," He said, "Why do _you_ always come here? Is it really for the scenery?" I noticed the gleam in his eyes again; it would seem that the sun was reflecting in his eyes, but there was no sun.

"Y-Yes," I stumbled. I could feel my confident and cheery façade slowly begin to melt from the heat Embry was giving off.

"That's all?" He questioned.

"Y-Yah."

"And where's Sage?"

"At home."

"And why aren't you with her."

"Because she kicked me out." The words flew out of my mouth before I actually knew what I was saying. Once I did I bit my lip to keep from saying more. I wasn't even sure how I let that slip out; my quick thinking skills must have been deluded by my sudden nervousness, which was causing me to sputter out the truth. Maybe this heat the beast was giving off was getting under my skin and weakening me from the inside out. I was going to have to be more careful with how I interacted with one of the beasts in the future.

I peered over at Embry while still biting my lip, so much so I wondered why I hadn't tasted metallic blood already. I was expecting to see some sort of mischievous grin on his face or a doe-eyed expression that wanted to hear some sort of gossip, however Embry was just sitting there with a calm expression on his face that showed no sinful intentions.

I freed my bottom lip from the clench of my teeth when I was sure I wouldn't let another word slip out accidentally. "It's nothing," I mumbled.

Embry nodded his head, saying he wasn't going to push me any further and I was relieved.

"Didn't you say last time you'd be willing to see some of the other beaches?" He asked.

"Yes."

"Great."

Without warning, Embry stood up and then grabbed my hand with his oddly warm hand and pulled me up off the fallen tree. He then lightly pulled me by the hand as we quickly walked down the beach.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"You'll see," He said, excitement in the undertone of his voice.

I looked at his hand, it was large like a wolf's paw and perfectly tanned a dark caramel and it encircled my frail, tiny, and pale hand perfectly. I could feel the sickly warm heat of his hand melting into my skin but it didn't feel like I was being burned, and in the frosty air, Embry's hand was the best glove I was wearing.

* * *

_Leah_

"Is there really a point to stalking them?" I asked Jacob, "We all know what's going to happen next. Plus kneeling behind a bush is making my legs fall asleep."

"Shhh," Jacob whispered and I shot him an annoyed glance.

Jacob and me peered over the random green bush that we were hiding behind at the edge of the forest. I watched-Jacob looked more like he was studying-as Embry stood up from the fallen oak and pulled Ellie off with him. We watched them fade into the distance with Embry having one of his jolliest faces on and Ellie looking a little bit more than unsure and surprised.

Jacob sighed and spoke, "If you had talked any louder she would've heard us."

"How was she supposed to hear us if we're more than thirty feet from her?" I asked exasperated.

"Well you always seems pretty loud to me," Jacob muttered.

"Gee thanks," I muttered back sarcastically. "That was pointless," I grumbled.

"How?"

"We all know how this story ends," I said, "They fall in love, they get married, they have little baby-wolf children, and they live happily ever after. The end."

"It's kind of fun to watch though."

"I thought everyone would get bored around the, what is it? The seventh girl? Something like that."

I just stood around watching in case they came back, but after five minutes it's obvious they weren't. I muttered a goodbye to Jacob before shifting and trotting home to my grief-stricken family and prepare to go to a funeral.

My mother had been doing well with Uncle Lucas's death, better than she had dad's, but it was mostly because she had Charlie and the wedding to help keep her spirits high. I was all right, my heart grieved for a long while before it froze back into stone. I was mostly concerned about Seth.

Uncle Lucas had been one of Seth's father figures after our dad had died and had always made an effort to have something to talk to him about every time he visited. Seth had got some of his humbleness from Uncle Lucas and half of Seth's heart grieved for Uncle Lucas to return. The other half of Seth's heart was heartbroken over Sage. He regretted every hour that he had supposedly abused Sage and wants to fix things with her but feels too cowardly to do so. An imprint and a death had turned my brother into an utter train wreck.

After the funeral, however, Seth will gradually feel better about the death like he had with dad's, maybe faster if he ever spoke to Sage again. Which would probably be a good idea, if the pack were going to tell him that Embry had imprinted on Sage's cousin.

* * *

**Author's Note: Yes you can read the last sentence again if you like it isn't a grammar mistake. Though some of you probably already caught on to the hints before hand (and I mean bomb-sized hints). **

**So I'm glad to say that I've got my things together and I have a plot coming along that before was still forming so keep reading cause I got some exciting things that I'm setting up for.**

**One last thing is that there is an error in chapter 7. Where it says that Ellie moved to Phoenix, Arizona at 9, it is supposed to be she moved to Riverside, California.**

**I'm too lazy to put a disclaimer this week but please, as always, remember to type something in the review box at the bottom.**

**-J.J.**


	13. Motives vs Feelings

**Chapter 13: Motives vs. Feelings**

_Renesmee_**  
**

Sitting cross-legged on my bed, the mattress sinking under my weight, I sighed as I finished the thick book I was reading. In the blinding light from the lamp sitting on my bedside table, I could see the small dust particles in the air do a furious, swirl-like dance when I slammed the heavy novel shut that created a short wind in the air.

I lightly tossed the finished novel on my bedside table and reached for the next readable thing within my grasp. I found my favorite classic novel, _To Kill A Mockingbird_, sitting at the top of the stack of books next to me. The stack of books was unstable due to the uneven weight that I was putting on the mattress, so when I took _To Kill A Mockingbird _off the pile, the large pile of books collapsed on me like a Jenga tower.

I huffed and through books that were on me into various other directions on my bed. I lost my reading mood and slid off the bed. With nothing left to do I started pacing around my house, another way of me waiting for fate to through something interesting my way.

The feeling of sweet liberation I had earned several days earlier when I was un-grounded was short lived. Vincenzo was still in Italy, Daphne was unpacking her stuff in the hotel she was staying at in Seattle and visiting some of her normal friends that she had mentioned yesterday, and Nahuel was hunting with his aunt far up north. Though, with the way he had been asking about Leah's current condition, I wondered if deer were the only things Nahuel was searching for.

So in the end, I had no other half bloods to socialize with, a good half of my family was also hunting, and I have no idea of where Jacob might be. With all that in mind, I was indirectly forced to return to the lifestyle I lived while grounded: reading books and waiting for someone to visit me in my parents' cottage. A lifestyle that I was too familiar with that whenever I started to wait for someone was around the time someone actually did.

_Ding-Dong. Diiiiiiiing-Dong._

Just like that.

I sighed in relief and skipped merrily to the front door. When I opened the door, I found my favorite wolf wearing my favorite wolf-ish grin.

"Hello, kiddo," Jacob said with his usual enthusiasm. "Did you suffer without me?"

"I'm not a 'kiddo'," I muttered, "And aren't you suppose to sense when I'm dying?"

"You were dying?" Jacob asked, his eyebrows raised.

"I was suffering a sever and chronic case of boredom." Jacob chuckled.

"Well I've come to the rescue," He muttered cheerfully before sauntering into the doorway. Jacob was so tall that he actually had to duck to get through the doorway without banging his head.

"I haven't seen you in nearly a week," Jacob said, almost complaining.

"I've met new friends."

"I know, Bella told me." For some reason I thought Jacob sounded upset when he said that.

"Daphne and Vincenzo both left and won't return for a couple more days," I said.

"Are they the two new ones?"

"Yeah, did you see them?"

"Nope."

"They don't eat people you know," I muttered.

"Sure, sure," Jacob said and collapsed onto the couch, and I'm pretty sure it caused the whole house to shake for a millisecond. "Is the Brazilian guy still around?"

"Nahuel? Yeah. Hey are you upset about something?" I asked.

"No," Jacob muttered nonchalantly, but made the mistake of avoiding my gaze and looking down.

"What? You jealous of me having other friends?" I couldn't help but spread the wicked grin on my face.

"Psshh, I'm not that possessive." Jacob peered up at me.

"Then why were you asking about them?" I retorted.

"I was just curious, besides maybe I was going to thank Na-something for saving Leah."

"Okay, sure. Well you'll have to wait an hour or two until he's done hunting." I saw Jacob tense. "Hunting for _animals._"

"Okay, fine. And by the way, if I was possessive I would never let you see your Aunt Christa again."

A flush rose in my face. "What do you mean by that?"

Jacob rolled his eyes. "I'm not stupid. Before you were grounded, you visited her everyday for hours and hours. I was really depressed you know, I thought that maybe you had forgotten me."

I plopped a seat on the couch next to Jacob. "That's impossible. You've been my best friends since the day I was born. How could I forget you?"

"Have you visited her since you were grounded?" Jacob asked.

"Yes."

"When?"

"Five days ago."

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure."

"Have you noticed anything…suspicious while you were at Christa's five days ago? Or any time you were with her?"

"Define suspicious."

"Do you think Christa's more than human?"

I flinched and momentarily froze before speaking again. "Where's this coming from, Jacob?"

"Just answer the question, Nessie."

"Well, uh…uhm no. No, Christa is perfectly human," I stumbled pathetically over my words.

Jacob narrowed his eyes. "You're lying," He accused.

"No I'm not. I've been there plenty of times and haven't seen anything supernatural, or suspicious."

"Just tell me Nessie. I won't tell anybody else." Jacob's words sounded reassuring, and I almost believed him. Almost. I couldn't leave Christa's dangerous secret with Jacob, no matter how much I loved him. He would end up telling the pack once they heard his thoughts and then my family would know once Edward heard the packs' thoughts.

"I'm sorry Jacob but there is nothing to tell."

"Sure, okay Ness. I'll be right here when you want to talk." Jacob pressed his lips into a thin line, showing he no intention of ever talking again unless I spit something out.

Then, almost childishly, I said, "Well maybe you're just jealous!" Jacob raised his eyebrows but spoke nothing.

"You're right, I did spend a lot of time with Christa. I'm allowed to have other friends besides you Jacob! I'm allowed to be friends with my aunt, I'm allowed to be friends with my own kind, and I'm allowed to socialize with people who don't think, or don't know, I'm a freak!"

Jacob kept a calm visage through out my mini-tirade and continued to keep silent. I clenched my teeth and narrowed my eyes at him.

"Fine then," I spoke, "Be like that, I'll be like that too." With that, I sauntered out of my cottage's living room and into my room a couple feet away. I slammed the bedroom door shut and pressed the lock switch on my door handle

Books were still sprawled all over my bed but I collapsed on to the fluffy piece of furniture anyway. I huffed out a loud sigh of frustration, a little bit more concerned with the fact that Jacob was ignoring me than by the fact that Jacob, and possibly the wolves, may know something dangerous about Christa.

* * *

_Christa_

I chewed slowly and nervously on the mostly burnt toast and my hand shook as it held my coffee mug. Jericho and Dominic settled into their seats at the table in my small dining room in the kitchen. Jericho sat at my right while Dominic sat at my left, both eating toast that they hadn't burnt and acting like last night wasn't nightmare-worthy.

After Jericho had found me running into the house, I broke down into a hyperventilating fit before he could even say anything. I managed to mumble out some half truth/ half lie story when he asked me why I was so upset. I had woken up in the middle of the night and couldn't get back to sleep so I went outside for a midnight stroll (skipping the part where I had eavesdropped on him and Dominic's conversation) and told him that I had seen Dominic's former "leader," I had seen _her_. Then five seconds later I had practically passed out on the floor.

Now, I could feel the air of curiosity around them both. Once they finished stuffing their mouths with breakfast they would probably go into twenty-questions mode.

"Where did you see her?" Jericho asked. Or maybe they weren't going to wait.

"Within the forest," I mumbled.

"What did she look like?" Dominic asked.

"I didn't see. She ran away before I got a full visual, but I could definitely tell she was tall."

"So then how did you know it was _her_?" Jericho asked.

"Well, who else would be stalking me?" I asked. Then again, if the wolves were really onto us then the tall female figure could have been a she-wolf.

"Maybe it was an animal," Dominic suggested. My head was getting tired of whipping left to right as Jericho and Dominic took turns asking me a question.

"It wasn't an animal, I saw two arms, two legs, long hair, and pale skin."

"So you do know what she looks like," Jericho said.

"No I don't! Geez, could you guys give me a second to at least breathe?" At my words, Jericho and Dominic simultaneously frowned and pulled on a deadpanned expression.

"Thank you," I mumbled. While they stayed quiet, I sipped my coffee out of my black mug with my now stable hand.

"I'm sorry," Jericho mumbled and I almost slammed the mug back down on the table.

"It's fine, just don't interrogate me at 10:00 a.m. in the morning next time-"

"I'm not talking about that," Jericho interrupted. For just a millisecond, my heart leapt because I thought he might be talking about how he talked about leaving. Maybe he was apologizing because it wasn't true and he was staying.

"I'm sorry for being wrong about _her _being Victor's accomplice and I'm sorry if I said you worry too much. I won't be as naïve next time." My heart dropped-of course he didn't know that I knew about his intentions-but I wasn't completely disappointed. At least he was pretending to care for the last couples days (couple hours? couple seconds?) that he was here.

"Well I never doubted her existence, or even danger," Dominic cut in, "Actually I've got good news."

"Good news?" I asked, a little incredulous.

"I've got a plan to capture her." I nearly spit out the coffee I was swallowing.

"What?" Jericho and me asked simultaneously.

"It's simple really," Dominic took a munch out of his toast before continuing, "_She_ wants you. Why? We'll ask her when we have _her_. But we're going to capture _her _using _you_."

"Let me guess," I said, "We're going to build a giant fishing pole and I'm going to be the bait."

"No," Dominic said, "We don't how powerful she is and you're the strongest witch here, Christa. If we risk putting you as bait then Jericho and I could be vulnerable to her magic. We're going to need some else as bait."

"Do you know how to make a life-like clone of someone?" I asked.

"No, but I do know someone that does look an awful lot like you."

"You do?" Dominic grinned. I didn't understand whom he was talking about, but apparently Jericho did.

"We can't use her," Jericho said.

"Why not?" Dominic asked.

"Christa would never allow it."

"How about we ask Christa who's right here."

"Who are you guys talking about?"

"We're talking about you're niece."

"My niece? Nessie?" I glanced at Dominic with eyes full of astonishment.

"Curly hair, fair skin, similar face, a few touch ups here and there and you guys could look like twins," Dominic said with a grin.

"No," I denied, "She's suffered enough, I'm not dragging her into anymore of my problems."

"We can ask Nessie if she could volunteer," Dominic suggested.

"It's still a no."

"Well then Christa, do you have any better ideas?"

I sighed. "There's got to be some other way."

"Well until you find it," Dominic said, taking his last bite of toast, "I'll be watching re-runs of Law & Order." With that, Dominic departed from the conversation and strolled out of the kitchen.

"I feel like recently people end up running away from me whenever I talk to them," I muttered.

"It's just what happens," Dominic replied, "You know I would never run away."

I paused from eating. "Running away from my conversations?" I asked.

"Running away in general. I like it here; you've been very hospitable to let me and Dominic stay. Sage and Ellie are also pretty cool. Plus, you have a pretty good toaster." Jericho took a munch from his breakfast toast for emphasis.

What?

"Christa you look like a deer caught in headlights."

"I'm just…shocked…that you like it here," I mumbled under my breath. Part of me wondered if the conversation between Jericho and Dominic was a dream or not.

"Thanks for letting me stay, poppet," Jericho said and, before I could reply, he gave me a swift peck on the cheek before leaving the table to put his dish in the sink. When he was gone, I let my hand lightly hover over the cheek he kissed me on. I was a little bit more concerned with the fact that I had mixed feelings for Jericho than the fact that I had to find a way to capture _her._

* * *

_Sage_

**Seventeen missed calls from: Seth Clearwater**

That's what my phone's screen told me, my missed calls from Seth were almost equal to the amount of times that I had called him. However, what was a couple days' worth of phone calls to me was one day's worth of phone calls to him. It hadn't been a full twenty-four hours since I first got his first call.

Unfortunately, I couldn't bother to return any of his calls. I had a change in heart and instead of spending the next couple hours sobbing on the phone with him, I was typing in key words into the Google search bar. Key words such as "warm skin" and "fast healing."

"_Can't you see that he is a selfish, ungrateful, deceitful, corrupt…BEAST?!"_

Yes, I was furious with Ellie-first time in a _long _time-and the way she yelled at me yesterday made me question if she was the same Ellie I had always known and loved, but her words from the other day seemed to be super-glued to all the walls in my brain. They were keeping me from concentrating on what I really should be doing: getting back together with Seth. But that single word…beast…it held a bigger meaning.

Ellie was a sweet and compassionate person, however she did have a tendency to be a bit prejudice. She typically called people who weren't like us witches and elves (vampires, werewolves, warlocks, harpies, pixies, etc.) beasts. Though she had good reason to ever since when she was younger and that vampire and werewolf had teamed up and nearly beat her to death. Ever since she called any foreign species beasts.

Now I myself had been attacked by a vampire, but I didn't refer to them all as beasts. Sure vampires still scare the living daylight out of me-no pun intended-but I tried to think that there might be some sort of good vampire out there.

Going back to Ellie, why would she call my boyfriend a name she reserved for creatures she despised? There was a good chance that she was just emphasizing how much she was jealous of him, but after some things I had seen from Seth I don't think I would be surprised if he did turn out to be more than human.

One, Seth was always late for our dates. He insisted that we go out everyday and yet he would always be twenty to thirty minutes late to any of our meeting spots. Most people think this would be a sign of lousiness or cheating, but our dates were always located somewhere outside and were nature-related and when finally arriving Seth would appear from some sort of path out of the forest. If I asked why he was coming out of the forest, he would either say that he was hiking or some other excuse.

Two, when we were on the cliff, a flame had accidentally shot out of my hand and burned Seth's palm. I was completely sure that had happened, however when I looked at Seth's hand not a burn mark of any degree was there. And then there's the question of how someone confuses the pain of being burned with the pain of being stung by an insect. He must have some sort of healing adaptation or defect.

Three, I had never taken into consideration Seth's body temperature (nor had it bothered me), but every time I had visited him his body temperature was a constant degree of a somewhere over one-hundred. He had warm arms, hands, face, legs, lips…he was warm everywhere. He was warm enough that it should have bothered me that he might be sick, but then again, Seth was never sick. Never.

There were other factors about Seth that made him suspicious (especially his interaction with his sister and other "friends") that I had been so oblivious to when I was first in love with him. I still found Ellie's tirade yesterday to be irrational but she made me give second thoughts about Seth's nature. Whether Seth was something supernatural or just a human with a really creepy disorder, I was going to get to the bottom of things.

Warm skin. Fast healing. Healing disorders. Disease immunities. The more words I added into the Google search bar the less and less I was getting anywhere. The websites and online encyclopedias weren't even faintly close to the answers I was looking for. The disorders and supernatural creatures that were popping didn't fully fit Seth's character.

I was about to give up after almost forty-five minutes of searching when two new words popped into my head. I had felt like I had just wasted so much time looking for a source to my questions when I already knew where the answer was. Seth had mentioned a couple things about his tribe once in a while, so with a new a sense of what I should look for I typed in something new into the search bar:

Quileute Legends.

A promising website immediately popped up and I felt a rush of joy as I knew I had found what I was looking for. I eagerly hovered my mouse's arrow over the link.

_Click._

* * *

**Author's Note: So that's that and I hope you're happy because I wrote this chapter a little bit extra longer than I usually do. Did you know that if you were to copy and paste this entire chapter unto a Word Document, it would be almost nine pages long? My usual chapters are somewhere between seven to eight. Just let this be bigger reason of why you guys you should review more often. **

**Disclaimer: Twilight belongs to Stephenie and The Nessie Ventures belong to me, capiche? **

**I'm sorry for my awful grammar and I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving to those who celebrated. And as always-let me breathe for this one-the last thing I will say is: *****Inhales*******

**PLEASE TYPE SOMETHING IN THAT BOX RIGHT BELOW!**

**-J.J.**


	14. Setting the Stage, Part 1

**Chapter 14: Setting the Stage, Part 1**

_Renesmee_

"You haven't talked to Jacob at all after the argument?" My mother asked.

"Yes," I mumbled. I took a sip out of my glass of lemonade and kicked my feet up onto the dining room table. My mother frowned, and I decided to put them back down. I munched on the biscuit I was eating and stared absent-mindedly at my now empty plate.

A glass of lemonade and a basket of biscuits that were leftovers from the ones Grandma Esme had made the other day were my idea of a lunch/afternoon snack. Of course my mom didn't judge me on what I ate anymore, human food at least. I wondered if she finally forgot what it tasted like after being a vampire for a couple of years. I wonder if she would let me eat a pop tart late at night and not think it weird.

"That's too bad," My mother muttered, "Just when you got out of being grounded too. I don't think I can recall the last time you two fought." That statement had more of a dire meaning coming from someone with a vampire's memory.

"I can't either," I replied, "At least Daphne and Nahuel will be back." I sighed and moved on, "Have you heard anything from Vincenzo or Marcello?"

"Unfortunately I've heard none."

I pouted before taking my last sips of the cold lemonade and put the glass with only ice cubes left back on the table. I was about to leave the room and my mother however she grabbed my arm just as I was lifting out of my seat.

"Your Aunt Christa needs to see you," My mother said firmly.

"She wants me to come over today?" I asked a bit excited.

My mother frowned. "She called earlier saying she needed to talk to you, but she didn't necessarily say anything about wanting to see you. Did you do something wrong?"

"Not that I remember," I mumbled. "Maybe it has something to do with Charlie's wedding."

"Christa would have told me." My mother's frown deepened. "Come on lets go before she calls again."

In motions with such gracefulness but slightly hurried, my mother and I were out of the main Cullen house and already hopping into my father's silver Volvo. My mother drove out of the driveway quickly without looking back, as if she would actually be worried she would hit someone else.

"So I never asked you but how do you like Daphne and Vincenzo?" My mother asked.

"They're great. They weren't once rude and Nahuel gets along well with Vincenzo and Daphne," I replied but lowered my voice when I said Daphne. Somehow whenever I started thinking about Daphne, I remembered the austere look on her face when she said her sister went missing. How many years did she go searching for her? When did she finally lose hope?

"What are you thinking about?" My mother asked.

"Nothing," I mumbled.

"You mind if I ask something a bit personal?"

"You probably already know the answer."

My mother huffed. "When I told you we had special visitors, you didn't seem happy you seemed scared."

"You do know the answer, mother."

"You know I said I was sorry about that."

"I know."

"So you know that I won't be wreckless with you again like I did with the last visitor."

"I know, but I couldn't help but worry."

"I really am sorry."

Long story short, while I was still a child, a year or so after the Volturi came to try and annihilate me, and my family, a vampire claiming to be a 100 year old geneticist said that he had a vampire hybrid as a son. He approached me and my mother while we were hunting in the forest. He gained our trust quickly and leaded us in a direction away from home.

We followed him about a mile out when we found his "son." I went to approach the son only to realize that he wasn't a hybrid at all, he was a vampire. It was an artifice, one vampire attacked my mother to keep her from protecting me and the vampire's son tried to drink me alive. If it hadn't been for Jacob and his pack I'm not sure if I would be alive today.

"I did research on Vincenzo and Marcello before agreeing to a meeting with them just so you know," My mother said.

"Okay."

"I'm so sorry Nessie."

"Mom I've heard you apologize enough over the past four years. I've seriously forgiven you."

"Okay..."

"…"

"….I'm sorry."

"MOM!"

"Alright, alright I'll stop…so tell me more about your argument with Jacob. What's he suspicious of Christa doing."

"I don't know. It's not so much what she does as much as it is what she is."

"He thinks she isn't human?"

"Pretty much."

"I don't blame him."

"What?" I nearly shouted. If I were driving the car right now I probably would have stomped on the break petal.

"Calm down. Holy crap Nessie, you don't have to shout in my ear. I said I understand why he might think that, I didn't say he was right."

"But…why?"

"He's jealous, I guess. You're usually the main focus for his attention so it must be odd for him now to start sharing you. I don't think Christa is anything more than human," My mother mumbled.

"You're lying," I retorted.

"No, I'm not. Do you think Christa's more than human?"

"No."

"You're lying."

"Oh look! We're here!"

My mother swerved into Christa's driveway with perfect accuracy even though she had both eyes glued on me. I could see a frown deepen on her face when I quickly kissed her goodbye and hopped out of the car. My mother did not pull out of the driveway until the door finally opened ten seconds after I rang the doorbell. As my mom was leaving, I turned around and noticed that a wary looking Jericho had opened the door.

"Hey Jericho," I greeted warmly.

"Hello Nessie," He mumbled with a short smile.

"Why don't you give him the special greeting you gave me?" I heard a sarcastic voice ask and immediately recognized it.

"It's good to see you too, Dominic," I shouted. I peered around Jericho to find Dominic sitting on a couch in the living room while skimming through a newspaper article.

"Oh yah I heard you beat him up in a fight," Jericho said with impish grin, "I wouldn't mind hearing more about the details."

"How about we not bring it up?" Dominic asked.

"Hey Nessie!" Christa cheered as she skipped into the room from the kitchen. Christa pecked me on the cheek and gave me a tight hug; from over her shoulder I could see Dominic glaring at Jericho while Jericho gave him a haughty smirk. For just a millisecond I thought I saw a fireball flicker in Dominic's hand, then in Jericho's hand.

"Did I tell you yet that you should call before coming over?" Christa asked.

I furrowed my eyebrows. "But you called me first."

Christa furrowed her eyebrows in refection to mine. "What-"

"That actually would have been me," Dominic interrupted. I stood still, even more bewildered to what was really going on, however some light bulb immediately clicked over Christa's head and she swerved around to glare at Dominic.

"Let me guess, mimicking spell?" Christa asked peeved.

"Well she wasn't going to come if I called," Dominic muttered (looks like someone still hasn't gotten over the fight).

"Dominic, I know what you're thinking and it's still a no," Christa hissed.

"I just thought that we might want to have her input," Dominic said who wasn't the least bit unnerved that Christa might be the next to knock him to the floor in just a couple seconds.

"May I ask what's going on?" I asked exasperated.

"We're being watched," Jericho mumbled before Christa or Dominic had uttered a syllable.

"Who would be watching us-" I paused mid sentence before the light bulb flicked on in my head too. "It's _her, _isn't it?"

"If by_ her _you mean Dominic's mentor then you are correct," Christa said.

"So what do I have to do with her?" I asked.

"We need to catch her," Dominic said, "She wants Christa for some reason, however we can't use Christa as bait to catch her because we'd be risking our strongest witch. So we need a Christa-look-alike as bait."

"I still don't get-" I paused again midsentence before another light bulb turned on. "I'm bait, aren't I?"

"No you're not bait," Christa said and grabbed my hand. "I'm not risking your life again."

"You will if you can't find someone else," Dominic said, almost threatened.

"We can try reasoning with her," Christa mumbled.

"If she's been secretly stalking you for a long time without showing her face, I'm not sure if she wants to be friends."

"Well how do you know she wasn't stalking you?"

"Because she wasn't watching me last night."

"I don't like it," Christa mumbled.

"I don't mind," I said, "Just as long as I don't get grounded again."

"I'm worried that _she_ might attack you Nessie," Christa whimpered.

"We'll be close by," Dominic assured, "I would never have suggested it if I didn't think we wouldn't be able to protect Ness."

I raised a mental eyebrow at Dominic's comment (I was pretty sure he was bluffing), but I pretended to be reassured by it. "Yah I'll be fine."

Christa grimaced.

"Besides, you know I can defend myself, "I added, "Right, Dominic?"

"Yeah I don't doubt it," he mumbled.

Christa snorted-only she would get what I really meant when I said I could defend myself-and replaced her grimace with a more confident smile.

"So I'm willing to be bait," I said, "What do you think Christa?" I batted my eyelashes at her to beg approval.

"What would I do without you," She mumbled under her breath. "Lets see how we plan it out, then I'll consider it.

* * *

_Ellie_

I shifted my feet uncomfortably on the porch; my calves, ankles, knees, and every other bone and muscle in my legs moaned in soreness and begged me to lie down and rest. I leaned my head against the little glass window in the front door and scanned again for any sort of movement in the house. When I saw nothing, I banged my fist again on the door. If I banged it anymore I'm pretty sure my knuckles would begin to bleed.

"Sage open up! I gave you enough time to be angry. I need to get back in my house. Please!" I shouted.

There was no response or movement.

"PLEASE!"

I sunk against the door with a weak moan. Sage wasn't one to hold grudges for longer than four hours, so a whole day should have been plenty of time to burn off steam. Maybe things are more different now that it's her boyfriend that has been insulted. I used to be the only one Sage ever showed love to, and I treated her the same way. When did Seth become more important then me?

I let one little tear slip down my cheek. It hadn't been the first tear to be shed over abandonment and neglect-I'd earned plenty from my mother and sister-but it was the first to be shed from the source of Sage, the closest thing I had to a best friend and a sister. Without Sage, who did have?

There was Christa, Dominic, and Jericho, but as many times seen before all Jericho and Dominic really cared about is Christa, and actually maybe Sage, and each other, so really anyone else but me. But I didn't need Dominic and Jericho. There were still others like Christa and maybe Nessie.

Well I would have Christa again once Dominic and Jericho get bored of her and Nessie only comes over when Christa invites her. So I was alone.

My heart suddenly seemed heavier…well actually heavy wasn't a good word. My heart was like glass that had just been collecting fissures over the years. My arguments and rejection from my mother and sister as a child had left a big crack in my heart and then my recent argument with Sage had lengthened that crack. The painful realization that I was alone had shattered my heart into unrecognizable pieces.

I closed my eyes with another tear.

…

When I opened my eyes the next time I found myself on a short couch in the grand living room of the mansion I lived in. I must have fallen asleep on the porch and when Sage came outside she found me unconscious. She probably couldn't make it carrying me upstairs so she settled with laying me here on the couch. I sat up on the couch and stretched my arms up to the ceiling. I could feel that my back was starting to ache and I decided to retreat upstairs to my bedroom.

When I moved to stand up I could still feel that my legs were sore from the long day. Note to self: never ever for as long as eternity lasts should I ever go anywhere with Embry without a car. _"I'll take you to the best beaches," _he said. _"It will be fun," _he said. He must have thought every damn beach on the western coast as the best. Not that everything I saw was boring, I just could have lived with not seeing half the beaches he showed me.

I grasped the stair railing with my arms-the only extremities that weren't sore-until I had successfully dragged my way up the stairs. Now all I had to do was get to my room. I limped slowly down the hall while leaning on the wall for support. My feet made small sounding thumps that Sage probably wouldn't be able to hear.

My room was adjacent to Sage's (something that was purposefully set up by me and Sage when we first moved here) so right before I reached my room I passed by hers. I shouldn't have, I really shouldn't have, but I pushed down on the door handle to her room and found that the door was unlocked.

The door creaked open slowly with a small shove and I found Sage beside her bed, hunched over in her wheely chair in front of her computer. She was browsing some sort of online encyclopedia when I entered but closed it and opened the Google home page. She swiveled around in her wheely chair to face me.

"Hey," I mumbled.

"Hey," she replied half-heartedly.

"You still mad?" I asked.

"Nope."

"Are you going to apologize?"

"Are _you_ going to apologize?" She retorted.

"I have nothing to apologize for," I said.

"Then I have nothing to apologize for either." With that last statement she swiveled around in her wheely chair and went back to studying the computer. I closed the door slowly and quietly.

I shuffled to my room next door. I opened the door with enough force to slam it into the wall then closed with the same amount of force. I stumbled and collapsed into my bed without even bothering to change into pajamas. I sobbed into my pillow in rhythm with the sounds of the Willapa River for an uncertain amount of time, before falling asleep for the rest of the night.

* * *

**Author's Note: So…this chapter kind of late, and by kind of I mean three days late. Originally I had planed to finish the chapter on Saturday but I wasn't going to update till Sunday to scare you guys a little (because I haven't been getting a certain something from you guys lately). But then I had a Christmas party to go to on Saturday that lasted the whole day and then on Sunday I was writing a speech for a history project and doing other schoolwork. So I didn't finish till today.**

**Please excuse me for my stupidity and please don't start sharpening pitchforks and tracking down where I live. An incident like this I will try my best not to let it happen again, unless I do it on purpose, which most of the time I will tell you guys it's late.**

**Disclaimer: Do I look like I own Twilight?**

**I'M SORRY BUT STILL PLEASE REVIEW!**

**Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Happy Kwanzaa, and Happy whatever else**

**-J.J.**


	15. Setting the Stage, Part 2

**Chapter 15: Setting the Stage, Part 2**

_Bella_

"How much longer?" I growled. My hands curled tighter around the phone and my nails dug into the buttons. If Christa said another word that I didn't like the phone was going to smash into microscopic pieces.

"Well…," Christa trailed, "Can I have her till eight?" I could practically feel Christa flashing an innocent smile and batting her eyelashes through the phone's receiver.

"Why so long?" I responded harshly.

"We're helping with a favor for Charlie's wedding," Christa said nonchalantly.

"What favor?"

"We're writing…the invites for the wedding."

"Writing the invites?"

"Yah you know the process. Designing and printing the invites, writing addresses on envelopes, putting stamps on, and all the other fun stuff." I could hear Christa's voice dip at the end of the sentence like she was unsure about something.

"And you're not lying?" I asked.

"Why would I lie?" Christa answered back. The question actually contained enough concern and slight confusion that it made the statement seem honest; I was taken back.

"Just…make sure Renesmee stays okay," I muttered.

"Don't worry, Bells. I'll remember to warn Renesmee to be careful, wouldn't want to send her home with a paper cut," Christa chuckled.

"Yah…paper cuts, Renesmee can be very fragile like that," I mumbled with a bit of a fake laugh.

"What's wrong, Bells?" Christa asked, seemingly concerned. When we were kids, Christa and I were each other's best friend, however as adults and now being two whole different species it seemed rare when we could talk about our problems

"It's nothing Christa," I muttered, "I just have a feeling is all. I'm a mother, it's only natural."

"But what do you have to worry about?"

I sighed. "I don't know, it's just that Renesmee is…," I bit my lip, "…very special. I know you don't fully understand why Nessie was grounded, but you have to trust me when I say that there is a lot out there in the world that could threaten Nessie… maybe even myself. So just promise me that Nessie will always be under your constant supervision."

"Don't be so melodramatic, it's not like Nessie can just sneak out of the house without me noticing. Why would she? She likes it here."

"I guess so," I mumbled. I remembered Renesmee's little scheme a long while ago that how half the time that I dropped Nessie off at Christa's house that Christa wasn't actually there, she was just using Christa as a cover to go hunting for that vile monster.

"Bella," Christa said, "I know the world can be real awful whether or not it's dark outside, I mean I practically lived in an asylum for about a decade. I've seen some ugly stuff but can you believe that there is such a thing as a normal day? Trust me it exists, and I'm pretty sure I've seen worse than you have."

I was left dumbfounded for about a second before replying. "Pffft, oh please Christa. I doubt you've seen a lot of traumatizing things in your days. I've definitely seen worse."

"How do you know I haven't?"

"Cause you would have told me if you had."

Christa was quiet for a second; it was her turn to be speechless. I heard a sigh over the receiver before Christa's confident voice returned.

"So how do you know you've seen worse than me? You would have told me too."

"I just…know."

"Then I just know too. Lets leave it at an impasse."

A moment of quiet passed between the both of us before I spoke again. "So about Nessie…," I said.

"She'll be home by eight," Christa replied.

"That seems pretty late to me considering that you're just writing and sending invites. It's a little bit suspicious."

"It can get pretty tiring. There's only the two of us doing it and there's a lot of people going."

"Fine, I'll pick her up at eight," I agreed.

"It seems pretty weird to me that how you always pick her up and never let me drop her off at your house. It's a little bit suspicious."

I snorted. "See you later Christa."

"See you Bells." The line went dead with an alerting beep and I jabbed the phone back into the receiver. I was almost tempted to pick up the phone and call back but I restrained myself. I need to give Nessie her space, even if she had abused it before.

"Who was that?" asked a familiar, velvety voice behind me. I spun around gracefully to find my wonderful husband leaning against the doorway of the cottage's kitchen. He was wearing a plain, white tee shirt with faded blue jeans. He had his hands shoved deep into his pockets and his bright-gold eyes were focused on my hand resting on the counter by the telephone.

"Christa, nothing unusual," I replied.

"You sure about that?"

"Yeah."

"Where's Nessie?" Edward asked. Instead of replying, I pressed my lips into a thin line and stared at him like he already knew the answer.

"With Christa," Edward said, "Of course. Why else would she hang out with anyone else?"

"I think she's sick of us," I said. "And Christa's her only normal relative around here."

"What about Charlie?"

"Charlie's getting married, he's going to be busy."

"And you're just going to let her run back to Christa? Even after what she did? This is only going to end the same way."

I huffed out an unneeded supply of air. "Renesmee's smart, she doesn't need to learn the same lesson twice and I think she's too terrified of being grounded again to risk hunting anymore vampires."

"That still doesn't mean that you can't go with her to make sure she actually is with Christa."

"Edward, I just called Christa to make sure Nessie was with her and that she kept an eye on her."

"You just could have stayed with her anyway."

"Edward," I muttered. I crossed the little space between us and rested my hand on his cheek where I could feel the pressure of Edward's frown. "Our daughter is a half-vampire that can be a little reckless sometimes, I know that. But our daughter is also turning into a teenager, which means if we keep her trapped with us, in or out of the house, then she's only going to retaliate more and therefore do more reckless stuff."

"What you said before about Nessie being smart, if she truly was then she would understand our concern as her parents."

"Yes, but we should also understand that Nessie needs some personal space."

Edward's frown lifted into a straight line across his face. "When is Nessie coming home?"

"I'm picking her up at eight." Edward's eyes bulged.

"Her and Christa are working on the invites for Charlie's wedding."

"Bella," Edward said, "Can you make me a promise?"

"Of course."

"Can you go over Christa's house, as in go over there and peek through the window without them knowing, and just check to see if they actually are working on invites."

"Fine, but why?"

Edward's lip gave a slight tremble. "I don't know what it is lately, but Christa just gives off a weird aura to me, I don't think I've ever felt it before. I'm not sure if we can keep trusting her."

I gulped "I know what you mean," I said. Ever since about fifteen years ago when Christa was first sent to the mental facility, she had started giving off a weird sensation. I had thought it was just some repulsion I felt for her because I had started to believe she was insane even when I knew she wasn't, but lately I've been wondering if there's something about Christa, that isn't insanity.

"Alright I'll peek by Christa's house in a little while and see what they're up to."

"You promise?" Edward asked.

"I promise." I planted a small peck on Edward's nose and grinned up at him. "Besides, what's the worse that could happen?"

* * *

_Christa_

"What's the worse that could happen?" Dominic asked.

"We don't have to act so quickly," I murmured. I was seated on the couch in the living room next to Jericho, both of us staring at Dominic as he paced around the living room. Dominic, Jericho, Nessie, and I had picked up from yesterday's discussion about trapping _her. _He had already concocted the plan for how we would trap _her _and I argued with him as he tried to change details while Nessie and Jericho stared at both of us absent-mindedly.

"We don't know if she'll be out tonight," I pointed out.

"We don't know if she'll be out any other night either," Dominic retorted. I huffed in frustration.

"Nessie has a few hours before she needs to go home," I said. Dominic ignored me.

"Jericho," He said, "Call Ellie and Sage to come here, we'll need there help for the plan."

"On it," Jericho mumbled. Jericho slowly lifted himself off the couch but I stopped him by putting a hand on his chest.

"Don't call them. They'll get themselves hurt too," I pleaded. Jericho flashed a warm smile in return.

"The more, the merrier," Jericho said, "And the more there is on guard the safer Ness will be. Sage and Ellie are very capable of defending themselves."

"They fought very well in the battle against Victor," Dominic added.

I sighed. What could I do? They were right, Sage and Ellie weren't wimpy, in fact they could fight ten wizards on their own if they wanted to and I knew they would be happy to help. But if one little thing went wrong, then I'd only be endangering them too. Could I trust that they were strong enough?

"Well?" Jericho asked.

"Fine," I said, "Call them, it's just one witch anyway."

Jericho nodded in response and proceeded to the kitchen where the telephone was located. I swerved to Dominic with a slight glare on my face. I spoke my next words with as much command as I could add.

"If I sense that one little thing has gone wrong then we are retreating, immediately. No ifs, ands, or buts, you will follow what I say and if you so much as go against me, or do something to endanger my niece or anyone else, you will never be able to step a foot inside of Forks ever again. Do I make this clear?"

"You make it very clear," Dominic responded. "You have nothing to worry about, I would never do such a thing." When Dominic finished his sentence, he strode casually over to me. He stopped walking when his face and my face were just an inch apart. He leaned his face against mine and just when I expected the worst, he tilted his head and put his lips by my ear.

"However, I can't say that Jericho won't do anything that could hurt someone if you know what I mean," Dominic whispered.

I gritted my teeth together, he was bringing this up again. Dominic had not given up on trying to make me believe that Jericho was a traitor, which there might be a good chance that he actually is considering what I heard the night I eavesdropped on Dominic's and his conversation, but I still didn't understand why Jericho hadn't made any move to leave like he threatened he would.

There was also the time when Dominic had said that Jericho was making secret calls in the middle of the night to _her. _Dominic gave me Jericho's phone however when I tried calling _her_ supposed phone number nobody would answer. Also Jericho always seemed to be at the house, I don't see how he could go out to have secret meetings with _her_, unless he was doing that in the middle of the night too. Jericho was either innocent or extremely cunning, and it was hard to tell which he was when my heart and my brain believed two different things.

I looked over at Nessie, she had been so quiet that I almost forgot she was there. She seemed both frightened and curious but I couldn't tell if she had heard what Dominic told me or if she just didn't understand why Dominic was so close.

"I hope you know what's best," Dominic said, now a good distance away from my face. "For everyone."

"They'll be here shortly," Said Jericho. I turned around and noticed that he had his head peeping out of the kitchen doorway and was staring at Dominic and me bemused. He stepped out into the living room and walked toward us.

"Am I missing something?" Jericho asked.

"Nope," I said nonchalantly.

"We're just strategizing is all," Dominic said.

"Okay," Jericho replied, still confused.

I shook my head. "It doesn't matter. Dominic was just saying more stupid stuff. When did Ellie and Sage say they would be here?"

"About twenty minutes," Jericho said. "Sage is carrying Ellie here so they can get here by flight."

"Okay."

"Wait what?" asked Nessie. Three heads, including myself, swerved to look at a certain half vampire that had a terrified expression on her face and stared at us wide-eyed.

"Did you just say that Sage is carrying Ellie here and they're flying?" She asked. "How is that possible?"

I chuckled. "Because we're witches, that's why." I watched as Nessie's brows slowly furrowed like I had just spoken Portuguese and I decided to further to explain, "We might not use broomsticks, but witches can still fly."

"What do you use to fly?" Nessie asked.

"Nothing, we just propel ourselves into the air and just fly. Cool, right?"

"Yah," Nessie said with a bright, new, gleaming smile.

"Yes, whatever, really interesting, can we just talk about the plan already?" Dominic interrupted in a harsh voice. I shot him an annoyed glance but he just rolled his eyes at me.

"So I say we leave Nessie by the meadow where the battle with Victor was, that should be close enough to the house but far enough that _she_ will be confident that no one would come to the rescue if she attacked Christa." Dominic said, suddenly serious.

"That should do," I said, "And I have the perfect spell to disguise Nessie as me."

"Good," Dominic said, "Now we just have to find somewhere in the forest where we can see Nessie but _she_ can't see us."

"I know how to make a camouflage potion," Jericho said, "We can get as close to Nessie as possible without her noticing us."

Dominic nodded, "Disguise, camouflage, now all we need is a trap."

"You think we should just get her some sort of oversized mouse trap?" Jericho asked with a grin.

Dominic just rolled his eyes again while Nessie and I giggled. "We have to be serious about this," Dominic grumbled.

"Why don't we just create a circle around her?" I asked. "Say, we put Nessie in the center of the meadow. The meadow has almost the shape of a circle so we each stand behind a tree or something and we each stay in a different direction. I can be in the north side of the circle, Dominic can be in the west side, Jericho will be east, and Ellie and Sage will be south. When _she_ gets close enough to Nessie we all run into the meadow and surround _her_."

"That's perfect," Jericho said.

"It'll do," Dominic muttered, however he seemed slightly upset about something.

"What's wrong?" I asked bemused.

"It's nothing, it just seems a little too dangerous for Nessie in case _she_ gets too close," Dominic said. Both Nessie and I gave identical snorts at Dominic's bluff.

"Whatever," I said, "Lets just start getting ready while we wait for Thing 1 and Thing 2 to show up."

"Wait," Dominic said with a loud shout that made everyone's ears perk up. "You said that we still don't know if _she_ is here or not, so I have one last detail."

* * *

**Author's Note: So you can take this chapter as my Merry Christmas/ Happy Chanukah/ Happy Oh-Wow-We-Survived-The-Apocalypse/ Happy and merry whatever other holiday you celebrate present. Next update will come as usual and…wait for it…wait for it…*ahem***

**PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL LLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSS SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSEEEEEE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEE EVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVIIIIIIIII IIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWW WWWWWWWWWWWW**

…**Well that just gave my spellcheck system a headache.**

**Disclaimer: Trust me, you'll know when I own Twilight.**

**Happy Holidays!**

**-J.J.**


	16. Drawing the Curtains

**Chapter 16: Drawing the Curtains**

_Renesmee_

"I'm going to look like a bear attacked me before we even get there," I muttered grudgingly.

I pushed away the thorny branches of bushes as I walked slowly and clumsily through the forest's bushy undergrowth. The little pricks and thorns of the bushes clawed mercilessly at my hips, sides, and bare legs and I had to sacrifice my bare hands in order to keep the rest of me from being scratched. Even though I had thick skin and quick healing abilities, I could see scratch marks on my hands and arms growing with each bush that I tried to shove away. The thorns were even sharp enough to draw blood when they were pointy enough.

"We're halfway through," Christa replied with confidence. Christa wasn't an exception to the undergrowth's wrath, however she shot little sparks of fire through her fingertips to burn away any thorns before they could touch her. Even though the little flames were sucked back into Christa's fingertips magically before a bush's branch could catch on fire, it still amazed that Christa hadn't accidentally caused a forest fire yet.

"Do you even know where we're going? Did you remember to bring the map?" I asked.

"Of course I remembered the map," Christa replied, but not harshly, "Besides your scrawny legs could use a work-out."

"Scrawny?" I gave a loud huff that blew away stray bronze curls out of my face and trudged more forcefully through the undergrowth, causing the scraping of thorns to come faster.

Unfortunately, to make sure we weren't at risk of being seen by Dominic's maker, or simply _her_ as Christa refers to her, we had to take the…longer way to the meadow. The longer way would be better to travel by because of the undergrowth that both concealed us with its thickness and kept away any hikers or _her _with it its barbed bushes. Another caution we had to take is that we had to be separated and travel in two's (Christa and me, Dominic and Jericho, Sage and Ellie), because if we all traveled together, even in the undergrowth, we would still be easily spotted.

"Here I'll talk to keep you distracted," Christa offered.

"I don't want to be distracted and then have myself pricked all over by these thorns-"

"Then I'll talk to keep you from being bored," Christa said to cut me off.

"…Well we're having quite nice weather if that's what your interested in," I muttered.

"Oh, c'mon." Christa slowed her pace a bit so instead of walking in front of me she was walking beside me. "You're not curious about anything you've been told?" Christa asked.

"Well," I thought for a moment. "There is one thing: I thought humans became witches by having some sort witch parent or grandparent, like you had to be part of some witch family tree."

"Anyone with a witch ancestor, grandparent, relative, and etc. does have a possibility of maturing into a witch because witch magic runs through their veins, that is true," Christa said like some college professer.

"Okay, so how did Dominic's maker "make" Dominic into a wizard?" I asked.

Christa sighed an uneasy breath. "Well it is possible to technically "make" someone into a witch, but it's…complicated. You see, a mature witch, wizard, or warlock can tell if a child or teenager is going to grow into a witch because we can sense that magic runs temporarily dormant through their veins. We call the people that will grow into witches or wizards "potentials." However, several centuries ago, it was found that you could quicken when a potential was supposed to turn into a witch. This act is often performed by witches who look to claim numbers in their clans or by witches desperate for a companion."

"So how does a witch turn a potential into a witch when they want to?"

"If a potential takes in the blood of a witch inside of them then their blood will mix the witch's blood and turn them into a witch, or wizard. There are many ways of doing this: a witch could make a potential drink their blood, they could inject their blood into the potential with a needle, and they could even squirt a drop of their blood into an open cut of a potential and the two bloods will mix. The magic inside the blood of witches can awaken the dormant magic inside potentials."

"So what you're saying is if a potential mixes their blood with a witch's, they'll turn into a witch?"

"Yes, they usually change into a witch or wizard in about a day or so."

"And it doesn't matter if that potential wasn't supposed to change for another few months or years, they'll just start changing immediately?"

"Yeap, that's the whole point, to speed up when they're going to change. However it's still extremely risky."

"Why?"

"Well there's a reason they're only called potentials. Just because something has the potential to do something, it doesn't mean that they'll do it. Not all potentials turn into witches or wizards; sometimes they're just "duds." And if a witch tries to change a human dud into a witch, then the human will die. Also sometimes not even potentials get correctly changed into witches. Sometimes, if the potential is really young and they're still a couple years from maturing into a witch, then they can have defects from maturing too early. It's like trying to hatch an egg before it's supposed to, you may not get a perfect chicken. Most potentials naturally turn into witches in their teens then will continue to age normally until they hit the age of twenty. A potential that turns into a defected witch may stop aging a few years before or after twenty. Potentials that turn into defected witches may not be able to cast certain spells or be able to produce fire from their hands properly. They may not be able to live forever like most witches or they die a few years shortly after being changed due to complications."

"That's…horrible," I mumbled. I could picture it in my head right now, a small girl, at a young age, being injected with a needle full of witch blood by some satanic witch. I imagine her having half human/half witch-like features, I imagine her with one human, brown eye and another eye the color of violet, which was traditional color of a witch when she was performing magic. As she grew older, her body and shape would become more gangly and disproportioned. She would lose the elegant stride of a young child and have to limp on her incongruent legs to get around.

Any spell she performed backfired on her half the time and the witch that created her would get so frustrated with her that she would abandon her. Without her maker, the defected witch would only live a few more years, at that point she would be coughing and wheezing for air. Her features would turn gaunt and boney looking and she would have no muscle to carry her to some sort of shelter. She would die in some abandoned alleyway or forest with no one around that could put her under a gravestone and give her eternal peace. The creature that was once a young girl had started decaying long before she died.

"Nessie?" Christa asked, a little wary. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," I mumbled, "I was just thinking of what it would be like to be a defected witch."

"Don't worry," Christa said, "Defected witches and duds aren't very common. Most potentials survive the early change without any flaws. Dominic survived okay, and so did Sage."

"So did Sage?" I asked.

"I never told you?"

"Nope."

"Well, to understand why Sage was changed so early, I have to tell you a story." Christa paused for a moment to give a deep grunt before proceeding with the speech. "The witch world is divided by a "caste system", as I might have told you once. People of higher levels in the caste are more powerful in magic than those of lower levels. Each level is named, the lower class is the Anawim, the middle class is the Ragil, the upper class is the Osher, the warrior-like class that is stronger than the upper class is the Lacertosus, and the highest class that can have only one member is the Singularis. Sage and Dominic are part of the Ragil, since the Ragil is the highest populated class, and then Jericho is part of the Osher and I am part of the Lacertosus. Like a caste system, everyone is born into their level and you can never move into a higher or lower level in your lifetime."

"Wait, wait, wait, the Singularis is the most powerful level in the witch world, and there's only one girl in it?" I asked with my eyebrows raised.

"Yeah."

"Who?"

"The Witch Queen, because of course the queen has got to be better than everyone else." Christa gave a roll of her eyes but still remained apathetic. "I thought I told you about this already."

"I forgot," I said then shrugged. "Why is she the only one in it?"

"It's just the way the world works." Christa shrugged too and I silently hissed as I felt a prick go into my ankle.

"And you said that you're part of the Lacertosus, which is the most powerful under the queen?" I asked.

"Yeah, not to brag or anything but we're pretty rare and we get a lot of respect. I bet there are only a few other members of the Lacertosus in the state of Washington." Christa gave a wide, cocky grin and I tried not to roll my eyes at her smug expression.

"So what does this caste system have to do with Sage and the potentials?" I inquired.

"Well, most witches are peaceful and don't care about what level they're in and only create clans out of friendships, family, and love. However, other witches can be conceited and only want a strong enough clan that'll get them praise and attention from the Witch Queen, as well as a place in her castle in Versailles. And of course there's only two things a good clan needs: quantity and quality."

"These kinds of witches try sometimes to create friendships with other members of the higher classes such as the Osher and Lacertosus to try and start a clan. Most of the time however, they turn potentials into witches and wizards until their clan is large and they have plenty of members from the upper classes. In Sage's case, Sage was a potential who was turned into a witch by a very greedy and hostile witch. The witch that changed Sage battled other clans of witches to capture their most powerful witches; when witch clans battle each other for powerful witches, it becomes something known as witch wars. I don't know too much about vampires, just the basics about their history, but I believe witch wars are similar to the newborn wars in the vampire world."

I nodded. "And Sage…_fought_ in these battles?" I asked, slightly shivering at the mental image of Sage in a dirty, shredded, military outfit with a maniacal look on her face as she shouted deafening battle cries and threw fireballs and spells at other raged witches like some trigger-happy lunatic.

"Well," Christa cleared her throat, "Of course she fought, she had to. If she didn't fight her maker was going to kill her. It was such an awful thing though; Sage was only about ten or eleven when she had been changed and she was forced to be torn away from her family."

"That is awful," I mumbled. I didn't even twitch or hiss as the mischievous undergrowth pricked me again; all I could thing about was if I was torn away from the Cullens to fight in the newborn wars.

"Did she fight for them for long?" I asked.

"She only fought them for a few years before we, Lucille's clan, stumbled up her clan while we were visiting Australia. We didn't even know we were going to be attacked and Sage's clan was weak from some earlier battles however they fought because Sage's maker made them ambush us. We were able to defeat the clan and we killed Sage's maker. Some of the clan members had ran away after their maker died and we couldn't catch them, but Sage had surrendered once her maker was dead and begged us to spare her life. Obviously, we let her live but Lucille only promised to let Sage live if she stayed in our clan." At the end of the story, Christa had a frown on and her face was contorted in irritation as she mulled over something she was thinking in her head.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"I say only greedy witches would take other witches into their clan by force, and yet my own mentor Lucille had threatened some young girl's life if she didn't join her clan," Christa mumbled. She huffed out a breath through her nose and shook her head lightly at her recent thought. For a split second, the little flames in Christa's hand died out before flickering back on.

"So are we almost there yet?" I asked in a new light voice. The underbrush was starting to get shorter and less prickly recently as we continued walking on our path. There were less thorny bush branches to push away and I could feel my skin relax as it was given a longer chance to heal.

"Hold on, let me check the map," Christa mumbled. Christa halted walking-and so did I-as she dug into her jean pocket with her hand. She pulled out a folded piece of paper that she then unfolded to reveal a crinkly piece of paper with a neat, hand drawn map of the forest that had several, colorful scribbled lines on it to reveal the different routes that we and everyone else in the plan were taking to get to the meadow. There were instructions in the margin of the paper that directed us where to go. Christa pointed to a red line that I assumed was the route we were using.

"Alright we are right here," Christa said while pointing to a spot on the red line that was two inches away from the big X that marked where the meadow was. "In twenty yards we need to take a right turn, then keep going straight for ten yards then we make another right, and then keep going straight again until we hit the meadow."

"How did you even draw the map of the forest correctly?"

"Well you can draw something near perfect if you're looking down on it, right?"

"Yes, but how-" I paused as the realization hit. "You were flying in the air when drawing this?"

"Yeah."

"And how can you tell where we're going on such a small scale map?"

"It's a spell I used. Remember the potion we took that one time so we would be able to see Victor's tracks?"

"Yes."

"Well this spell is similar, the difference is that I can see a red line in the ground that represents the path that will take us to the meadow."

"Then what's the map for if you can see the path?"

"Just in case the path is wrong." Christa flashed an innocent smile at me. I mumbled something unintelligible under my breath and we continued on walking.

Eventually, the underbrush disappeared shortly after we made our first right turn. When I looked down at my hands, they had little red scratches on them that criss-crossed to form different patterns on my hands that also extended on to my wrists and part of my arm. I also noticed that they were taking shorter than usual to heal. Usually little scars like these would take minutes, maybe seconds, to heal but they looked like they were going to take a couple hours to heal. I gave a loud huff and tried not to think about the stinging pain in my hands and arms as I trudged on.

When the underbrush disappeared and the canopy of trees became thinner, I could see the horizon through the trees. The sun didn't look like it was setting anytime soon but the early afternoon glow was gone. If I could guess the time I would say four o' clock. If I was right then my mom was being picking me up in about four hours.

After the second right turn, the trees and forest started to look more familiar and I could tell that we were getting closer to the meadow. The birds chirped in the trees as we passed and the squirrels scurried around us with acorns in their hands, you would never have suspected this to be a place where a malignant witch would be captured. I definitely wouldn't have.

Christa and me had walked a couple more yards before we saw the meadow come into view behind the trees. Together, we sprinted forward through the trees and jumping over large roots that ran through the ground in serpentine-like shapes. I could hear the talking of people close by in the meadow and I sighed in relief that we weren't lost.

Finally, Christa and I broke through the last row of trees and into the meadow. We halted to an immediate stop and started huffing and puffing for breath. I looked around to find that Dominic, Jericho, Sage, and Ellie were already there and that we were the last ones to arrive.

"What took you so long?" Dominic said exasperated.

Christa gave a few slow breaths to control her breathing before replying, "Sorry I got caught up talking to Nessie about-"

"We'll talk about it later, we're short on time in case you haven't noticed," Dominic interrupted and said bitterly. Christa grimaced before she walked over to where the group was gathered and I followed.

"You got the potion?" Christa asked to Jericho.

"Yeap," He replied. Jericho had his hands hidden behind his back, but once he lifted them in front of him he showed Christa a small water bottle that had an orange-colored liquid in it.

"And this is going to camouflage us all?" Christa asked.

"Yeap."

"Alright, lets get to the next step," Dominic said anxiously.

"I'm going to make Nessie look like me," Christa said to everyone else before turning to me. "Nessie give me your hands."

I obliged reluctantly and showed Christa my hands, which still had the little scar marks on them. Christa gaped for a second and everyone else stared shocked while I just gave a nervous grin.

"Holy crap did something try to murder you on the way here?" Sage asked stunned.

"No," I replied, "Christa ad I traveled through the underbrush which unfortunately had a lot of bushes with thorns and I kept pushing away the bushes' branches with my hands and…this is what happened." I raised my hands higher yet nervously to give them a better view of what happened.

"Ellie, can you?" Christa asked and gestured towards my hands.

"Sure," She replied. Ellie walked a couple feet in front of me and smiled at me reassuringly. She held her palms out in front of her like she was expecting me to put something into them.

"Alright Nessie, give me your hands," Ellie said, however instead of doing what she said I retracted my hands further away from her.

"Please Nessie, we're short on time and I promise it won't hurt," Ellie implored. When I looked around at everyone's faces to see their reactions, I noticed their faces didn't show any signs that said Ellie was wrong, they only seemed impatient. Reluctantly, I put my hands into Ellie's palms and immediately she wrapped her small hands tightly around my smaller hands. I whimpered at how the stinging got worse but didn't pull my hands away.

It was slow at first, but miraculously I felt the pain in my hands start to subside within several seconds; I relaxed once the pain was gone. My hands were fully covered by Ellie's however some cuts that were more on my arms stuck out and I nearly gasped as I saw those cuts start to heal rapidly then vanish within seconds. After about a minute of holding my hands, Ellie finally let go and I gawked in amazement when I saw that there wasn't a single cut on my hand once Ellie let go. I twisted my wrists and hands around on both sides and found that they both looked unscathed.

"But…" I said then drifted off as I kept twisting my hands to examine them.

"Rapid healing is an elf thing. Your welcome," Ellie replied with a soft smile.

Before I could question anymore my hands were grasped again by new pair of hands. I looked up to find that Christa was staring at me intently.

"Alright Nessie, just do two things for me," Christa said, "Keep looking directly at me and don't move." I shook my head in reply and didn't ask what she was going to do.

"Làm cho cô ấy của tôi gương," Christa said in some foreign tongue. I didn't really understand what she was trying to say before I realized she was saying a spell. I did as Christa had said and continued to look at her, too scared to see what would happen if I looked away.

Again, it started up slowly before it quickly gained pace. I didn't feel any internal change however, I felt myself get taller and I noticed that my corkscrew curls that partially covered my eyes gradually turned from bronze to a dark mahogany color. I could also feel my small hands get larger as they started break free from Christa's grasp. Once I felt myself stop changing Christa let go of my hands abruptly.

I heard a gasp from the others and turned to look at them; as I looked at them I noticed that I didn't have to look up to everyone anymore, I was even taller than Sage and Ellie. I looked down and noticed everything about me was bigger: my hands, feet, legs, torso, everything. I looked from me to Christa again and again and noticed that my new body was identical to Christa's in length, shape, skin tone, and everything else down to the last beauty mark. We even had on the same clothes!

"Wow," Sage said amazed, "Nessie I wish you could see how much you two look alike."

"They're identical," Jericho said.

"Just perfect," Ellie sighed.

"Very well done," Dominic said, but not as enthused as the others. "Now we just need that camouflage potion."

"Hold on," Christa said (for some reason I felt like I should start referring to Christa as _me_) with her hand held up like a stop sign. "You still need to tell us how you're going to lure _her _here."

"Don't worry," Dominic said with a reassuring grin, "I've got that covered, but it won't work if I tell you." Although his grin was reassuring, I thought I saw some mischievous glint in his eyes.

"Dominic, you better tell me or I-" Christa growled but was cut off by Jericho.

"Don't worry Christa I know what he's going to do, and you have nothing to worry about," Jericho said, in an oddly monotone voice. Although it still made me suspicious, Christa relaxed.

"Alright," Christa said calmly, "I trust you." Her words seem to visibly shock both Dominic and me. Jericho only nodded in reply.

"Lets get this show on the rode," Jericho said and unscrewed the cap of the water bottle full of the orange potion. He took a quick sip of it before giving it to Christa, then Christa took a sip of it before giving it to Dominic, and so on until everyone but me had taken a bit of the potion.

"Alright this potion is going to go into affect in about five minutes so lets make this quick," Jericho said hurriedly and almost unintelligibly. I noticed the others started to squirm around like they were trying to resist an annoying itch.

"Christa you go north, Dominic you go west, I'll go east, and Sage and Ellie you go south. We stay in our positions until Christa yells for us to attack once _she_ gets close enough to Nessie, got that?" There was an uneven muttering of an agreement to Jericho's reply.

"Nessie, stay in this position and don't move until after we've got _her, _alright?" I nodded in reply.

"Alright lets go," Jericho said finally and everyone dispersed into his or her assigned directions while I stayed put. I watch as each of them disappeared into the forest with equal distance from each other. The last thing I saw before they were all gone was that, even though Ellie and Sage were going in the same direction, they both kept several feet between them, kind of like they thought the other had some sort of contagious disease. It puzzled me until they disappeared too.

Even though I shouldn't, I decided to sit down. I huffed as I realized that it would probably be a long time before anything happened. I looked up towards the sky and noticed that sun wasn't in its original place from when I had last seen it. It had moved a noticeable distance and I might even say that half an hour passed, even though it didn't feel like it. I wish I had a watch on me; even watching the minutes go by was more entertaining than just sitting around.

Like a bored child, I started pulling up grass from its roots, making a pile of it in my hands, but even that got boring within five minutes. I looked around to see if I could see any of the others hiding behind some tree. That must have been some great camouflage potion because not even I could spot them with my supernatural sense of sight.

I tugged on the grass and kept looking at the sky for another ten minutes to help make time fly. I even found myself studying my hands just so I could memorize what Christa's hands looked like. Once I had pulled up all the grass in front of me I decided to turn around and pull grass from behind me. However, once I turned around I instantly looked up…and found that I wasn't alone the meadow.

She was sitting several meters from me, on the west side of the meadow where Dominic was supposed to be guarding. Like me, she had been sitting and she looked like she had been sitting there for a while. She was sitting cross-legged with her chin resting in the palm of her hand casually.

She had short shoulder-length hair that was sunshine blond and paper straight. She had a pale, creamy skin tone and seemed to be in her early adulthood, like a normal witch.

With my heightened sense of sight, I could somewhat make out her face from afar. She had a heart-shaped face like Esme and her eyes were evergreen like Ellie's but a little lighter and for some reason those eyes stood out the most, and it wasn't till a second after I noticed them that I realized that those eyes stood out the most because they were staring intently at me. She stood up abruptly, showing that she was tall with a slender figure and that she had a graceful stride as she slowly walked over towards me.

I didn't know what Dominic's plan was to lure _her _here but it worked real quickly.

As she slowly sauntered over here, I started to panic. I thought someone would have jumped out by now. I looked around wildly for them and started to scramble away from _her_ as she got closer. Why didn't I see them start to come out from the woods already? Why didn't they attack now? Why didn't I here Christa shout? Where…where were they?

When I looked back at _her _I noticed that she had some blue light in her hand and, before I could react, she threw it at me. As the blue light dissolved into me I felt my vision go black and my body become paralyzed. My senses still worked but I couldn't move and I felt like I was going to faint. My Christa disguise had dissolved immediately as the blue light hit me. Before I did faint though, an explosion started-by who or what I don't know-and it sent me flying backward for a long time. I was still in the air when I hit unconsciousness.

* * *

**Author's Note: Holy crap, this is the longest chapter I have ever written for any story and it is eleven word document pages including this author's note. I have never written a chapter neat 4,000 words and this is 5,000 words, just saying I don't mean to brag. This is also technically the biggest New Year's present I've ever given. **

**So if y'all could leave a review that would be fantastic, but I won't yell at you this week to do so. Big thanks to Bookwormwrighter who always reviews.**

**Disclaimer: Do you honestly think I own Twilight beyond this?**

**-J.J.**


	17. Tragedy, but no Comedy

**Chapter 17: Tragedy, but no Comedy**

**Preface:**

"…_It might work! And I don't even know all the possibilities of what could happen to her! She might live, she might die, she might be mutated, she might go into a coma, she might lose a leg, she might gain an extra eye, she might not even change!"_

"_But you can at least can see her, right?"_

* * *

_Renesmee_

I should be unconscious, I should be. I knew I fainted while I was still flying through the air but in the same second that I was asleep in the air was also the same second that I was agonizingly woken up by smashing and face-planting into a tree and being jabbed in the stomach by a crooked tree branch. I fell through the leafless tree, bouncing on the barren branches like a character in a cartoon and having the wind knocked out of me every second I hit a branch. After several feet of slow, painful falling, my body stopped at three branches that were thick and stiff enough to hold my weight.

I could feel one branch under the middle part of my back where my shoulder blades were, the other branch under my thighs, and the other right under my head which I'm pretty sure landing on that branch with my head was going to leave a bruise just short of a concussion. My arms and legs dangled and swayed off the branches like heavy, Christmas tree ornaments. I was getting the sense that smashing into trees would become a regular thing in battle.

I could feel that whatever paralyzing spell Dominic's maker had put me under was trying to put me back to sleep, however that spell was fighting with a horrible feeling coursing through my body: pain. The pain of new bruises blossoming on my skin, new cuts seeping out hot blood like an erupting shield volcano (I could feel a big cut on my forehead pouring out blood that felt like thick, warm honey from when I face planted into the trunk of the tree. That was going to need some serious stiches), and then there was just the general pain of my nerves screaming at me that I was extremely damaged and needed help. My pain seemed to dominate the feeling of fatigue that the spell inside me was trying to spread.

Even though that the nerves in my head were begging that I find help, the spell had successfully paralyzed me. Although my nerves could still feel, the connection between my brain to my nerves and my nerves to my muscles was lost, or maybe broken like a fallen power line. I could not even move my pinky toe with all the willpower I had, which kind of put me in a rough spot because my eyelids were closed and I couldn't open them to see. I couldn't move, I couldn't see, and I also couldn't scream or yell. I was as good as dead.

In the distance, maybe even twenty-five feet from me, I could hear more explosions from the meadow and under them the muffled sounds of battle cries and screaming. I thought I could recognize the loudest voice as Christa. It sounded frantic, confused, and strong all at the same time. I could hear muffled replying shouts from what must be Jericho, Ellie, Dominic, and Sage. However, I heard not even the smallest voice from the enemy, from _her_.

For some reason, even though the voices were loud, they also seemed spread out, which didn't make sense. Why would they be spread out if they were only fighting one enemy? Shouldn't they be circling her like what was planned instead of fighting her from different distances? Unless…unless what? What could it be…

…oh.

There was more than one of _her. _

I could feel myself breathing heavier, or maybe I was already breathing heavy but didn't realize it until now, but I didn't want to think that there were clones of her with her same cat-like grin and malicious, snake-green eyes. I couldn't tell what Christa was shouting, and therefore didn't know if her and the others were winning against _her _and _her _clones.

The battle continued onward, sometimes I could hear explosions and screams crescendo and decrescendo in volume, but the frantic and quick tempo of the battle never faltered. It was so much to concentrate all at once: pain, fatigue, explosion, screaming, and then I think I could also feel the tree start to shake and vibrate from the eruptions of the battle.

The battle still continued for what seemed like another half an hour while I still remained as motionless as a corpse. Being so still reminded me that the others probably forgot me. Not that I was angry, I didn't how many they could be fighting, they could be fighting one hundred clones of _her. _Though probably not if they were able to last this long against their opponents; so they're either equal in numbers or they're a couple people out numbered. Besides, even if they were winning, they probably wouldn't even know where to start looking.

And then I was led to another bad thought, they didn't know where I was and I had no way of making even the quietest syllable if they were able to hear that. And what if they loose? Then when will they ever find me?

Maybe an hour after the battle began I felt the tree shake, but not like a distant explosion. It felt like someone was trying to climb the tree. Had they found me? But then why was the battle still going on? Or has the enemy found me?

Before I could ponder or panic anymore, I felt thin arms wrap around my torso. I was then thrown over the back of my rescuer/enemy as she (I assumed it was a she by the thin arms that seemed to lack any muscle and that I could feel long, silky hair flowing down the back of the stranger) starting to climb down the tree.

The stranger stopped climbing after taking several steps down the tree, and then we were falling. I panicked for a second that she had fallen before I felt a stop and realized she had landed on the ground with both her feet. Once we were on the ground, the stranger took me off her shoulder and back and decided to carry me bridal-style.

I had no idea where we were going, but I could hear the cacophony of the battle get quieter and quieter with each step the stranger took. I tried to force my eyes open to get a look at the stranger, but the spell hadn't worn off the slightest since my rescue and I couldn't even move my eyelids a millimeter. Actually it felt like it was getting stronger and the pain in my body was (very) slowly dimming down and I felt the fatigue inside me get stronger.

I tried pushing out words through my mouth but it was like my vocal cords had been tangled together and all I could force out was a loud exhale of breath, which probably didn't disturb the stranger considering I was already breathing heavily. I briefly noticed that the stranger was wearing some sort of sweatshirt since I could feel its fabric on her shoulder where my head rested. Whenever the stranger took a large step or jumped, my forehead briefly brushed up against her bare neck and I realized that her skin was unnaturally cold.

I tried not to jump to the conclusion that she was a vampire because just because her skin was cold didn't necessarily mean she was a vampire. Her skin could just be could because of the temperature outside- I was getting a bit of goose bumps myself as the afternoon glow faded-which means that she's human or at least a witch or an elf…or maybe something else entirely different.

Once again, I started feeling more fatigued by the spell and the throbbing agony coming from the sporadic injuries across my body was getting just a bit mellow with each minute that past. If I was fighting to stay conscious, the lullaby that the stranger started to hum wasn't helping. It was some old nursery rhyme that hadn't been sung since years ago when I was a baby, but I still remembered the lullaby from movies and TV shows where the children characters often sung and laughed to it. The hum turned into a whistle and the whistle turned into song lyrics.

"Ring around the rosy," The stranger sung. It was so calming the way she sang it too. Her voice reminded me of wind chimes clinging together while they danced in the breeze. Although she was a stranger, her voice made her seem friendly, and somehow familiar. Maybe she was one of the Cullens or maybe Christa or Sage or Ellie. Heck, maybe she was Leah and the spell I was under made her sound like an angel.

"A pocket full of posies." The lullaby was making me really tired, and with my eyelids already closed, it would only be a matter of time before I succumbed to the dark. I wonder if the stranger is singing because she wants me to falls asleep or she's distracting me from the distant noises of the battle that were still within hearing range.

"Ashes, ashes." Speaking (well actually thinking) about the battle, if this was Christa or one of the others carrying me, did that mean that my other friends were just destroying _her _and _her _clones and that was causing the explosion noises? Or had a clone found me? But then why hadn't she killed me? Why was she…helping me?

"We all…" The pain inside me was almost gone and my breathing was getting easier. The darkness of sleep was coming towards me in my head like a storm cloud.

"…Fall…" Should I worry about what would happen next? What if the stranger was taking me somewhere else to kill me? Should I stay awake so I can fight her off when she does? Or would it be moot to even try to hurt her if the spell wasn't wearing off?

"…Down." It was the last syllable I heard before I succumbed to unconsciousness. I gave up my struggles and worries as a distant thought in my head said that let what happens happen and I can deal with it later. And so my agonizing and unstable reality was replaced by a dream that showed the trivial wishes of a normal life I was not accustomed to.

* * *

It was night when I woke up again. My eyelids were still closed, but I could tell it was night because I couldn't see the sun's glow behind them. In the distance, a duet was played between the chirping crickets and the hooting owls. I had a feeling that I was about to yawn, but it faded when I found that I was unable to move my jaw, or really anything else. So I was still paralyzed, great.

I could still hear obviously, but I could also still feel. I could feel that I was resting on thin yet soft blades of grass. So the stranger had dropped me somewhere else in the forest. Where? I obviously don't know, nor could I sense the presence of the stranger anywhere nearby. So not only did no one know where I was, but also I didn't even know where I was. Now was a good time to start wishing I had stayed in the tree.

The habit and need to stretch was so strong that I thought it could break me out of my paralyzation, but not even instinct could help me now. I could guess that I had slept a couple hours and that my body had only woken up naturally, or at least I thought so until I heard the whispers.

They were so soft that I had probably mistook them for the wind when I woke up but now I realized that they were loud to have woken me up. As I continued listening I realized two things: 1) these whispers were actually conversations with words and syllables, and 2) whatever people were whispering they were right above me.

"…and she's just been here?" Asked one voice.

"Yeap," Replied a different voice.

"Do you know how long she's been here?" Asked a third voice. By the time I heard the question I realized that these three voices were all familiar.

"Nope," Replied the second voice. That voice definitely sounded like someone I knew.

"How did you find her?" Asked the first voice again, her voice seemed clearer as I recognized it. Her voice had a fairy-like pitch to it, which should have sounded like bell chimes if not for the heavy worry evidently layered in her questions. Another thing occurred to me as I realized that the girl they were talking about so close to me was probably me.

"Well I found Nessie-" The second voice started (yeah they were definitely talking about me), "-On the way over here with Edward." …Edward?

"We were on the way over to Christa's house when I caught her scent and followed it here," Said the second voice, which was deep and masculine.

"How long do you suppose she's been here?" Asked the third voice, which was feminine but deeper than the fairy's.

Suddenly I felt something touch my face, it was gentle as it carefully padded across my cheeks however it was as hard as concrete. I recognized the small pieces of concrete as cylinders and then realized these cylinders were shaped as fingers, fingers that were unnaturally smooth and diamond thick.

"Her skin is cold, _extremely _cold," The fairy mumbled, "Can you carry her to the house Emmett?"

Emmett? As in Uncle Emmett? Emmett is _here!_ Was Emmett the one who came here with my dad, Edward? Please don't let this be a different Emmett.

"Sure thing Alice," Replied the masculine voice, which I could now understand as being Emmett, and if I heard Emmett right then Mrs. Fairy was actually Alice.

Just as Alice asked, Emmett scooped me up from down on the ground and cradled me against his hard, colossal chest. He shifted his arms under my small body in a way so that he was trying to carry me like how you would carry a baby.

"Crap, she is cold," Emmett said nervously, also failing to add a laugh at the end of the sentence like he usually did to relieve tension in a situation.

"Should we check for injuries?" Asked the third voice, which reminded me of, and probably is, Aunt Rosie.

"Check?" Emmett asked incredulous. "Do you not see the huge gash on her forehead. Even though it's dried, I could smell the blood from a quarter a mile away."

"What gash?" Asked Alice. After she said that I felt a stone hand sweep across my forehead and brush away a tangle of curls and sticks and leaves. Once I felt my forehead clear of any mess I heard a gasp from right next to me.

"What happened to her?" Aunt Rosie said sobbingly. "She was supposed to stay at Christa's. Did she leave or did Christa or did…?" Aunt Rosie trailed off in her frantic voice.

I felt someone roll up the sleeves of my sweater and shirt and then roll up the ends of my pants. I heard the trio of my family members mumble and gasp about the other scratches and bruises on my limbs. Emmett shifted and moved me around in his arms and predicted that I had also broken a couple of bones too. The crunching of two new footsteps coming by them interrupted their worried chatter.

"What's going on?" Asked a new voice. It was familiar and I could already tell it was another family member. I struggled to hear who it was over my other's relatives talking, but the last word was loud enough to give away who it was: Dad.

"Edward, I don't think you should've gone back for Bella, she's not going to want to see this," Emmett said warily.

"She's my daughter," the other new voice, my mom, said, "Step back so I can see her."

I heard someone tugging closer to me and, either Mom had pushed my aunts out of the way or they had stepped back, all I know is that my mom had seen me and her piercing cry overshadowed every other noise in the woods and it had even made my fingers twitch, though I doubt anyone had seen that.

"What happened to her?" My mom shrieked, and before I knew I was being ripped out of Emmett's grasp forcefully and into the familiar arms of my mother.

"We don't know what happened," Aunt Alice mumbled, both sounding sorry and a little scared of my mother.

"We think it was an accident," Emmett said.

"Or more likely an attack," Aunt Rosie said.

"By an animal."

"Most likely a bear."

"Or by something else…"

"…Most likely something else as in a vampire."

"Stop!" My mother shouted, "I want to hear something." It went quiet, even the grasshoppers and owls stopped their nightly tune. Then, I felt my mother bend down, but she wasn't bending her body down, she was bending her torso down all the way until I felt her head press against my chest. I was confused for a moment before I realized what she was doing; she was listening for the most beautiful sound in this cruel world, a heart beat.

"It's slow," My mother breathed out, "And I think it's getting slower."

"How slow?" My father asked, trying to keep nonchalant but his voice was already breaking before he could finish one syllable.

"Slower than a human's," My mother's voice held disbelief, "And it's only getting slower."

"Which means…," My father said but couldn't finish.

"Alice," My mother whispered, "How does the future look?" There was a pause as all the vampires sucked in a breath. Alice was unresponsive, but I only knew it was because she was concentrating. After a couple moments, Alice's voice came out uncertain and trembling.

"The future's fuzzy; nothing at all is certain right now, but I don't think I see Nessie anywhere in the near future."

Another pause began as everyone let out their breaths shakily or in sobs. I could tell they were sweating (metaphorically speaking) fear from every one of their small pores. I wonder why I wasn't panicking. I could say that the witch's spell was affecting my mood too, but it was rather because I didn't feel like I was dying. My cuts and bruises and the gash on my forehead hurt but it wasn't nearly as much as when I first got them. I didn't feel myself lose breath as my heart beat became slower.

"Edward!" Alice suddenly screeched. "Don't you dare!"

"She's going to die!" My father shouted back at her. "We don't have many choices left! I won't lose my only daughter!"

"This doesn't have to be the onlychoice! We can bring her back to the house, and hopefully Carlisle will be back from his hunting trip and he can help her."

"But you don't see that happening, do you?"

"Because you won't let it happen!"

There were too many silent pauses going on, but my father couldn't find an answer to retort Alice with. The feel in the air of sweating fear turned into the huffing and puffing of anger and confusion. My mother had lifted her head away from my chest, and just as soon as she did something was tugging on my mother forcefully and repeatedly.

"Bella!" Alice shouted again, "Do you understand what your husband is thinking? What he's wants-what he's going to do to _your _daughter? Can you-"

"Yes, I understand what he's saying," My mother said more confident than before.

"Bella-"

"And I agree it should be done."

There was a quick wind and rustling and crunching of dead leaves as someone-probably Alice-paced around in a small circle.

"Emmett! Rose! Do you-"

"Yes we know and we agree with Edward," Aunt Rosie and Emmett said in unison with an expressionless monotone. I was half expecting Alice to ask me next if I knew what my dad was talking about because I sure as heck didn't.

"Alice," My mother pleaded, "It might work."

"That's exactly what the future says! It _might _work! And I don't even know all the possibilities of what could happen to her! She might live, she might die, she might be mutated, she might go into a coma, she might lose a leg, she might gain an extra eye, she might not even change!"

"But you can at least can see her, right?" My mother asked.

"Yes…"

"And if we change her, there is a more definite future than if we don't change her, right?" My mother asked.

Change me? They were going to change me into a…a…a-

"It would still be better if we tried to go find Carlisle first," Alice said in her last desperate answer. Come on Alice, that's right! Fight for me! Don't let them change me, don't let them bite me! I'm too young to be a vampire! Or worse! Make them take me to Carlisle. Keep begging for me. Oh please, _please, _don't let it end like this.

"She could be dead before we can even reach the house," My mother said. No Mom, no please, I'm going to live. I want to live.

"But…alright, alright. You don't even need my permission anyways. Just try and do it as quick as you can," Alice said. She was no longer pursuing to save my life, which meant I was all alone.

"Thank you," My parents said in unison.

_No! _I wanted to scream. _No! No! No! NO! _Come on vocal cords! My mouth was already slightly open, I just needed to push out a noise. Any noise that could get their attention. Anything! I started pushing out air through my mouth, which keeps coming out as a large exhale of breath, but I keep pushing out anyway.

"Look! Her breathing's getting worse. We need to do it now!" My mother screamed frantically.

_No._

"I know," My father replies, "Bella?"

_No._

"Yes?"

_No._

"Lets do it together."

_NO!_

Sharp daggers sink into my neck from both right and left. They stay there for a second, letting their venom sink in, before ripping out of my throat. The venom collects itself in my throat before it decides to sprint its way through my blood veins. It's destroying and changing anything in its path, and it immediately annihilates the source of the witch's spell in me. Pain finally triumphed over the witch's curse.

My eyes shoot open and I'm already thrashing around in my mom's arms before my vision can even become clear. I fall out of my mom's grasp and into the cold dirt and dead leaves.

"No," I whisper, also coughing up some of the black poison inside of me.

* * *

**Author's Note: So this is going to be a bit of a short note because I'm not spoiling ANYTHING for the next chapter. If you noticed I added a short preface at the beginning of the chapter, which I think I'll do for future chapters so I hope you like the effect. **

**Disclaimer: Okay lets sing our ABC's. A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H-I-DON'T-OWN-TWILIGHT-PLEASE-DON'T-HURT-ME-W-X-Y and Z. NOW I KNOW MY ABC'S, I'LL NEVER USE IT IN MY DISCLAIMER EVER AGAIN.**

**Word of the Day: Review (noun). Definition: Something my readers should give me more often.**

**-J.J.**


	18. Two Fates

**Chapter 18: Two Fates**

_Ellie_

We had won.

At least that's what I think.

The murderous cacophony and deadly fireworks that were previously blasting away at the center of the meadow had faltered and died some minutes ago. The enemy had us even in numbers, but they weren't even in skill. I counted that there were five or six enemies, and that included _her_.

The battle had lasted somewhere between one to two hours even though our adversaries were easy victims; it was just that _her _and two others were difficult to finish off, but Christa and the others seem to be able to take care of them just fine. I had managed to take two down.

It was easy. At first, I was blindly fighting the first person I saw. I would shoot something at this person and then at that person. They wa I was fighting would make you think that someone had taken an automatic gun, pulled the trigger, and span it around in a circle. Maybe some fifteen or twenty minutes into the battle, each of us had picked an opponent to solely attack and defeat. I had picked two boys, at least I thought they were boys. _Her _and _her_ adherents had all been wearing dark blue cloaks with white masks that only conveyed blank expressions. No matter how many times they fell, how many times we hit them in the face, or just which direction the wind blew, the hoods of their cloaks stayed put on their head and their masks remained unscratched.

The two minions I had been fighting I assumed were men by their bulky, muscular forms and were obviously mostly bronze and little brain. Halfway into my fight with them, I feigned that they had injured my leg and started to stumble and scramble into the woods. They followed me with absolute assurance that I was just a fireball away from death, when really I was just leading them away from the others so nobody would be able to help them when I took them down.

They followed me for what felt like a mile, not even once trying to hit me with a spell as I was down. Then when we were just deep enough in the woods, I turned and threw at them a plasma ball. An elf's plasmaball was the equivalent to a witch's fireball except it's hotter and it causes more internal damage than external damage to a creature.

Unfortunately, I didn't see that the second I shot my plasmaball was the same second they finally shot their fireball. My plasmaball crashed into their jointed fireballs. Their crash caused them to reflect and backfire. My plasmaball came back to me but I was just quick enough to dodge it and it eventually hit a tree. Unfortunately the two men were not as quick and got blasted by their own fireballs. A double explosion erupted from my opponents' side and the two men fell flat on their backs. They didn't even continue to fight, they ran away in the opposite direction of where the battle was and surely weren't feigning their scrambling through the woods.

I laughed triumphantly at cowardly enemies, however the laugh wasn't as loud or as full as I wanted it to be since (although it was relatively easy) I was gasping for breath after that fight. I stared at them as they ran, knowing that it would be a waste of breath to pursue them if they were retreating away from the battlefield, and I sat down when they were finally to far for me to see anymore.

I looked off into the distance to where the battle sounds had suddenly seized. I wasn't too concerned about the others since I was so confident they had won their battles. And so here I was, alone to myself, silently rejoicing that we had won the battle, a battle I had only found about just yesterday. Even though I had recently just found out how alone I actually was, this event made me seem a little closer to my friends, despite the circumstances we were all meeting under. I was completely happy for just a second.

And that second was killed faster than a fly being snatched by a frog's tongue and thrown into a permanent dark abyss. It was dead the second I turned around and I saw, not a few yards from me, _her _standing in front of me.

I knew it was _her _because I saw her going after Christa on the battlefield and it was _she_ that all the other cloaked figures listened too. In front of me, _she _wore no mask, but the cloak's hood over her head cast a pitch-black shadow over her face so I couldn't see it. Her blue cloak did not move the slightest when a howling wind moved between us. _She_ stood still and solid like a statue until the gust of wind vanished. _She_ raised an arm, and the blue cloak slid off it to reveal a peach-ish, pale arm that was not damaged by any scratches or bruises, nor blemished with any pimples or burns. The hand of that arm motioned for me to come toward _her_.

"Ellie…" _She _whispered.

I turned solid as stone at the sound of my name. My breathing became shallower and my eyes refused to blink and close off the image of _her _standing before me. The sound of _her _saying my name chilled me to the bone and petrified my muscles and for the first time ever I felt my heart turn ice cold in the center.

"Ellie…" She whispered again just a pitch louder. "Come with me."

I did not respond, maybe because I refused to believe that this woman was saying. I refused to believe that _she_ didn't know my name or that _she_ was politely asking me to do something, No, I refuse, _she_ was just speaking some old, foreign language that I didn't know the slightest about and that malevolent threats in her language sounded like calm words in English.

Then I found myself coming closer to _her_, not because I had decided to move, but because _she_ had started to move towards me. Her cloak covered her feet and she moved so slow that it looked like she was floating like a ghost toward me. Every inch _she_ took felt like a minute in the real world yet all too fast _she_ was standing right in front of me. _She_ bent down and did the most shocking thing I had seen in all my life. _She_ bent down, wrapped her arms around my shoulders, and pulled me against her tightly. _She _was giving me a hug.

"My name's Sam," _She_- I mean Sam, whispered in my ear. I exhaled a nervous breath in reply.

"Come with me, Ellie, I'll make it all better. I'll be your friend," She said with a cheerful laugh. Sam started to stand up, and my legs remembered to work so they could stand up with her. Sam pulled me away, hands still on my shoulders, and somewhere through that dark shadow across her face I thought I saw the blurry ghost of a smile. At that moment I decided one of the greatest decisions of my life, maybe even life changing, but in a second I was able to make that very important decision.

I decided that she was speaking English.

"I don't need a friend," I shouted in her face. I pushed her arms off my shoulder and, before she could change attitude and attack me, I charged my right fist into the face I couldn't see.

Sam staggered away from me as her hands flew up to cradle her face. She kept them pressed to her face and panted into them in pain for about several seconds. When her hands fell from her face she stood upright again, and although I couldn't see them I had a feeling that I was looking directly into her eyes. Eyes that were probably filled with maliciousness as she glared at me.

"Leave me alone!" I shouted and then sprinted away before she could attack me. I ran fast, partially stumbling in my attempt to get away from her. I only ran faster when I found that there were footsteps pursuing me from behind me.

"Ellie," I heard Sam whisper. Although I was pretty sure that she was several feet behind me, her voice sounded like it was being whispered from right next to me. I tried running faster but it was getting harder to zigzag through the forest of trees with my lungs on fire.

"Come back Ellie," Sam said in a less like a whisper voice.

"No!" I shouted.

"Please…"

"No!"

"Don't run away…"

"No!"

"Come back here…"

"No!

"But…but…I…I NEED YOU!"

"NO!"

Suddenly there was a howling in the distance, like a wolf. But it sounded louder, that or it sounded closer. And, for some strange reason, I thought the howl had some sort of emotion behind it, like it was pleading for mercy or begging for danger to go away. It made no sense, but then it howled again. This second howl was much more different than the first. It was like a growl and it was vicious enough to make me stop in my tracks even though Sam was still chasing after me.

I stood still, hoping whatever wolf or beast out there couldn't see me if I didn't move. I herd no pursuit behind me and I assumed that Sam had runaway in the opposite direction away from the wolf, that or I the beast has a quiet way of ripping people to shreds. Then, accompanying the harsh sound of my heavy breathing was the snapping of twigs and crunching of leaves behind me like someone was coming closer.

My teeth chattered and my hands trembled. Before I knew it I felt a hand grasp my shoulder from behind. Anger kicked in, and I flew around with my fist raised in the air. My fist would have collided with a face, but it was stopped short by a hand grabbing it. A very warm, a very big, and a very tan hand. When I turned around completely, I found my evergreen eyes looking into Embry's soil brown eyes.

"Hey calm down, it's just me," Embry shushed me as he still held my fist in his overly grown hands. I wrenched my fist from his hand but didn't sweep away the other hand resting on my shoulder.

"Um…hi," I said both awkwardly and still a little frightened.

"What was that chasing after you?" Embry asked, both concerned and exasperated.

"Um…what?"

"There was a person chasing after you. I saw him…or her, who was that?"

"That was…uh…nobody," I mumbled nonchalantly, however it was evident that I was nervous as heat swarmed into my face and colored my cheeks red. My rosy cheeks seamed to scream that I was lying.

"Don't lie to me, Ellie. Who was that?" Embry asked again, genuinely concerned and frightened.

"It was an…animal. I think it was a bear that was chasing after me, but it was really dark so I don't really know," I mumbled. Not even I could believe my words, but I really didn't know what to think. I was still shaken by Sam. I didn't get that eerie sense that she was still watching me but her words were tattooed into my head. And now I had run into Embry, a _beast_, who was now in the best position to find out my secret, the secret world of witches and elves and all other magical creatures, if I didn't say the right things.

"I'm not stupid, Ellie," Embry said, a little irritated, "I know a person when I see them."

"What are you doing here?" I asked, trying to turn the situation around.

"Excuse me?" Embry replied, as if he forgot that he was protecting his identity too and was truly offended. The beast was going to get on my nerves if he kept talking like that.

"Well I was being chased by that_ animal _when all of the sudden I hear a wolf and the something chases that animal away and then here you are. So where in the story do you fit in?"

I was expecting Embry to start stuttering and lose his confident façade, however he kept his face relatively calm. Embry spoke softly, "I was resting over there, by one of the cliff edges over the ocean." Embry pointed in the direction behind me. "During the day I sometimes go cliff diving, but when there's a full moon, I go there during the night to watch the moon's reflection in the ocean water for several minutes. I'm just sitting quietly when all the sudden I hear a girl screaming-your screaming-and then I see something running in the forest. I come closer and see you being chased by someone."

"And then you must have also seen the wolf?" I retorted.

"Maybe, I guess so. I saw the person be chased away by another creature, and I suppose it could be a wolf since they're pretty common around here."

"But you and the wolf…were…!" I started stuttering in exasperation. I already knew that Embry was the wolf, the beast, that had chased Sam away and I knew I should be playing the oblivious human but I still had a job to do and the faster he told his secret, the faster I could prove to Christa the beasts were dangerous.

"We were what?" Embry asked, not showing he was nervous what so ever. I had to give it to him; the guy had a really damn good poker face. So much so that I wish I could punch him and shatter that poker face so that I could get the reaction I wanted out of him.

"You came in the same direction as Sa-the animal and the wolf."

"How do you know? You were turned around when I found you. I didn't come in their direction, I just turned the direction I was walking in and found you."

"But the wolf! It was loud and it was growling. How did you not see it and how did it not find you?"

"I don't know. I guess it was more focused on your 'animal' than me."

I stopped continuing from there and just accepted that Embry had won this time, and that I could hopefully get him next time. At least I was able to keep my secret safe.

"What happened to your arm?!"

…Or so I thought.

I glanced down at the arm Embry was speculating. He had his hand on my shoulder but he took his hand off so he could lightly skim it over my injured arm in worry. I had been wearing a sweater before, but I think I took it off and threw it in a bush sometime before the battle began. I was now only wearing a blue, short-sleeved shirt that contrasted greatly with the thin red lines on my arm. Like I said, it was an easy fight, however I did get scratched pretty bad here and there when I was wasn't paying attention to the right person.

"Oh, I…uhm…" My lips fumbled for words, "They're scratch marks from the animal that was attacking me." Only at the end of the sentence did I realize that the scratches on my left arm could not be identified with any common animals around here. But maybe, just maybe, in the darkness of the forest could Embry accidentally mistake them for animal scratches.

"No animal in hell could do this!" Embry said, more exasperated than before. Well so much for hoping Embry was partially blind. Here I go again with my fumbling.

"Well-uhm-I-"

"Someone really did try and attack you, didn't they?" Embry said almost gravely.

"No-I-uhm-"

"Who did this to you? Why would they do it?"

"But-"

"Please just give me an answer!" Embry cupped my face with his hands and forced me to look directly into his eyes where I found the strangest emotion. The boy had only known me for about a week and yet he seemed to show as much concern for me as a person would for a childhood friend. More than that, his eyes made my mind completely blank; there was no lie or excuse that existed in my brain that I could tell him. His eyes were somehow tugging at the truth in my head and were trying to pull it from my head to my lips and I was already mumbling something out of my mouth.

Somehow his eyes became more intense and the truth was just reaching the tip of my tongue. I was going to tell him everything that had happened: my argument with Sage, the battle in the meadow, being chased by Sam, and somehow my entire life story was also appearing in the forefront of my mind. I was going to spill out all my feelings of terror, anger, and most importantly, loneliness to him. Then once all the words had been said and all the tears had been spilled Embry would say the words that would make things okay and I would smile and he would smile and he would wrap me in his warm, protective arms and he would whisper sweet nothings in my ears and I would never leave his embrace and we would live forever togeth-

-Holy crap, holy crap, _holy crap_. He's hypnotizing me. The beast is definitely hypnotizing me because I would never think this. These thoughts are illusions, they're black magic, they're blasphemy. I need to get away right now before I'm deceived into telling the truth. I need to get away from the beast.

"I got to go," I mumbled out frightened. I removed my face from Embry's grasp and started walking away, even though I have no idea which direction to go in I just know I need to get away fast before I start having those thoughts again.

"Wait," Embry says behind me. He puts a hand on my shoulder again and it paralyzes me to stand still. I clench my teeth shut to keep from saying anything. I turn around to face Embry and notice the intensity in his eyes has just reduced to nothing more than concern.

"If you're not going to tell me what happened honestly, then at least let me find you help for your injuries, please?" Embry says quietly.

I want to say no and just continue to walk away but instead I decide to think again. I have no idea how far I've ran, I have no idea where the road is, and I don't even have my map or my car. I'll probably just get further lost in the forest and end up in who knows where. I sigh and nod my head yes at Embry.

Embry gives a small grin. It's the nicest thing I've seen today and I almost relax a bit in his presence. "Good. Don't worry the rode isn't far away at all. I'll bring you to my house and get you some bandages." I nod in reply.

Embry is cheery when I decide to come with him. I was slightly astonished by how quick his mood changes. Going from calm to exasperated to calm to aggravated to calm to desperate to calm and then to happy. Maybe these beasts had some really strange mood swings. I was going to have to keep that in mind before I ever got into a fight with Embry again.

We walked (well I stumbled over twigs and tree roots while Embry somehow managed to stay coordinated) at a constant pace through the woods. I followed behind him and would nod at him every time he turned around to make sure I was there.

After about five minutes of walking, we found the rode, and with it a grey Jeep Cherokee that seemed several years old. Embry pulled a pair of car keys out of his pocket and clicked a button on the controls. The jeep made a reverberating beep and Embry opened the passenger door of the car.

"After you, milady," Embry said and gestured for me to get in and I almost snorted at the fact that the beast was capable of manners. I hesitantly climbed into passenger seat of the car and Embry closed the car door for me before jogging around to the driver's seat. He slid into the car-it almost seemed graceful for a beast-and pushed his keys into the ignition as the car roared to life. When Embry pulled onto the road he attempted conversation with me again.

"By the way I don't live alone so don't be surprised if you see a crowd of people at my house," Embry mumbled.

"Why do you live with so many people?" I asked.

"Well it's not really a lot. Technically the house belongs to Seth's older sister, you know Leah? Right well Leah, Seth, Jacob, Quil, and me all kind of live together."

I was about to say that he basically lived with his pack before stopping to realize I was supposed to play human again. I tried putting on my classical, pseudo smile and managed to get one corner of my mouth to lift up.

"That's not really a crowd of people," I mumbled.

"Yah well some of our other friends come over too at times," Embry replied. _Oh, _I thought, so not only is it his pack that lives there but members of the other pack of beasts. Which means, Embry was bringing me right into the heart of the beasts' territory.

* * *

**Author's Note: Put it down. **

**I see that pitchfork in your hands. Put it down right now. I know you guys were expecting Nessie but I just needed to include a little bit of Ellie before I could get down to business. Don't worry you'll see Nessie in the next chapter. And yah, by the way, I purposely didn't do a preface for this chapter. I think I'll only do that every now and then.**

**In other news, February is a big month of celebration for me. My birthday is coming up February 22 and lucky for you it doesn't land on an update day because I'm going to be busy as heck on my birthday. Also, tomorrow is the one-year anniversary of The Nessie Ventures. And I just found this out today so hjglgglhfg;gigilguig;ipi;giggbhgjgiulljkyyigvhj,.khy. I CAN'T BELIEVE I'VE BEEN WRITING THIS FOR A WHOLE YEAR.**

**So happy birthday to me and happy birthday to the Nessie Ventures and if you haven't reviewed now would be the month to do so.**

**Disclaimer: No matter how many birthdays I have, I will never own Twilight.**

**REVIEW**

**-J.J.**


	19. When the Tears Come Falling

**Chapter 19: When the Tears Come Falling**

Two days later….

_Renesmee_

I woke up. Again. But in a different place.. And a different…body? My body felt changed to me, but my body also felt the same. On the inside, nothing had changed, but on the outside everything had changed. When I woke up I automatically recognized the lavender ceiling and cream-colored walls of my room in the Cullen home. I shifted to a sitting position on my overly-fluffy bed in alarm and looked left and right to see if anyone else was in the house. That's when I felt my first difference; the perspective of vision was different, almost like I was…higher.

I dared to look at my skin to see if it had changed too. When I brought my hands to my face reluctantly I noticed that they looked practically same. My skin had always been porcelain-colored but thankfully I saw some pink-ish color in the palms of my hands and I sighed in relief.

However, when I turned my hands over to look at the back of my hands, I noticed that the veins in my skin were slightly more visible. Not because they were protruding further out from under my skin, but because they were darker. The regular dark blue color of veins now seemed darker, almost black. Another peculiar thing was that my fingernails were longer; before they used to be nubs but now they were at least an inch longer than before and I noted that I would need to cut them somewhere in the near future.

I stood up; again I got the feeling that I was higher. I looked down at the rest of my body. I looked the same…I think. My legs and arms seemed the same and the rest of me seemed like…well actually now I notice that there was a difference. Before I used to have the body shape of a rod, however when I examined at my torso closely, I noticed that I now had visible curves. My body no longer seemed just lanky, but also mature in a way.

My next move was the most drastic of them all. I turned around and found the vanity against the opposite side of the wall. Next to the vanity was a body-length mirror. I tiptoed across the room, not once looking up to see my reflection until I was right in front of the mirror. When I did look into the body-length mirror, I found a beautiful stranger staring back at me.

Truth was I hadn't changed. I had just grown.

A lot.

Before, I looked like a fourteen-year-old girl, but now I looked like I was on the border of seventeen. The reason why my perspective seemed higher was because I was taller by about half a foot. My hair had grown longer as well (all the way down to to my waist!) and my corkscrew curls only existed near the hair ends. Closer to my roots and face were curls that were looser than my original curls and more thick and voluminous. As said before, my porcelain skin was still pale as always and the mirror did confirm the fact that I had slight curves, not enough to call myself a full-grown woman but no where close to looking like a child anymore. Looking at me face, all my face shapes hadn't changed except for the fact that they had grown bigger, and I saved the most important part of my face for last: my eyes.

I cried in relief when I saw that they hadn't changed the slightest. They were still the dark chocolate orbs that I had earned from my mother and one of the few physical features I had to prove I had some humanity inside me. If my eyes were still the same color, did that mean I was still the same person? Had the venom affected me at all? But then why was I so different when so much of me had also stayed the same?

I got a reply from the last place I expected: my heart. Not from my conscious, or somewhere else in my brain, or my dad who had been somewhere nearby listening to my thoughts, no, my heart answered most of my questions. I felt a sudden flash of pain pump into my heart and leave the next second. Even though it was short, I felt like someone had just stabbed me from the inside with a hot iron and it was painful enough for me to collapse to the floor.

I gave a loud shriek in agony, but then froze in panic several seconds after the pain had gone away. Someone could have heard that. Actually, every vampire who lived in this house should have heard that even if they were half a mile away.

But no one came.

In fact I don't think I could hear anyone else in the house besides myself. Not the slightest bit of movement could be heard anywhere, not even breathing. Which meant there was a good possibility that I was alone in the house.

Confused, I stood up gingerly (I felt that if I moved too fast I would get stabbed again in the heart) and walked over to the cream colored door and gently pushed down on the door handle. The door gave a loud creak as it slowly swung open; again, every vampire nearby should have heard that but I still got no response.

I walked leisurely out of the room and down the hall towards the staircase. I could actually feel how long my legs had grown, it made my feel like I was walking on stilts and I actually tripped over my feet a couple of times. When I reached the stairs, I felt myself sweat with panic. I took my few steps down the stairs hesitantly. If I got another one of those "heart attacks" right now I would certainty tumble down the stairs faster than an avalanche down a mountain.

Halfway down felt like an hour-long journey and the closer I got to the first floor the more I felt like my heart would burst open. I bit my bottom lip anxiously, also surprisingly noticing that my teeth felt sharper than before. I took another step and gave a long exhale in relief.

But then I was stabbed again.

I tumbled the rest of the way down. My arms and legs were brought close together as I was attacked with punches from the steps I was falling on. When I reached the bottom, I fell flat like a pancake onto the ground. My arms and legs were sprawled out and bent in weird directions. I'm pretty sure I had broken several if not all the bones in my body. I lay there while I let my new body try to heal itself as quickly as it could. Pain, a recently new companion of mine, was gnawing at me from inside and outside.

Shockingly, I realized that the pain was evaporating just as soon as it had appeared. When I moved my right arm I found that it had already healed back to normal. And so had my left arm, and my legs, and my torso, and my head, and my…body. I had healed in a matter of minutes.

Tears blossomed out of my eyes and escaped down my cheeks. The tears had arrived late to accompany a pain that had already gone away. I continued to cry anyway with my new tears. They're new tears because they felt hotter, actually the more tears that slipped out, the more I realized that these tears felt like they were…burning me. Curious, I tried to wipe the thin lake of tears on my cheeks and gasped at the liquid on my hands. My tears… were black.

I sat up. The new realization of my tears made me wipe frantically at my face, however my panic only made more dark tears trickle down my face. I screamed in horror the more I felt the black tears burn my cheeks and the more my hands turned black from trying to futilely wipe them away. It only took moments to realize that these weren't tears, these were drops of venom.

"Help!" I screeched from the top of my lungs only to find that my voice was different. It lost its childish bell-like sound and matured into a voice more silvery and even. My new voice made me panic when I realized that no one would be able to recognize me without my normal speech. I still cried out anyway.

"Help please! Somebody help me!" The only response I got were the echoes of my own voice bouncing through out the rest of the house. I cried more when no sound or sign of actual rescue came.

"Help! Somebody…anybody!" The silence of the atmosphere around me mocked me and I pounded my fists on the ground in a pathetic tantrum.

"Help…please..." My last call was a whisper that would only reach my ears. The silence went from mocking me to gently encumbering me as I collapsed to the floor once again. I gave up reaching out to any outside source and accepted that none of my family would come to the rescue. As I gave up, my venom tears ceased their stream from my eyes and dried up on my rosy cheeks. I could only guess how sloppy my cheeks probably looked. Maybe it was best that no one had come, they probably would have ran away in terror if they saw my black, distorted face.

I looked at my hands; they were completely caked with venom and the venom was drying itself to my hands. It looked like I had dipped my hands into a bucket of black paint for all anybody else knew about.

Taking my hands away from my face, I glanced around the empty house. It made no sense, when my mother was being changed into a vampire at least half my family was guarding her at all times. But now, no one was here. Not only was it odd that no one would be in the house to take care of me, but also that no one was in the house. The house was always occupied; we even took shifts for hunting so that this house was never barren of inhabitants. Where had they all gone?

Loneliness is an even worse demon than pain. It leaves room for all kinds of other emotions, especially fear. The fear of the unknown, the fear of abandonment, the fear of vulnerability; they all existed inside me without my family, or even any other company.

Slowly, I stood up and began walking. I refused to be stuck inside this house all alone. I didn't know where my mom was, my dad was, the rest of my family was, and even where Jacob was, but I at least knew someone who was hopefully home and wouldn't freak out with my distorted self.

I sauntered out the door, my stilts suddenly felt like actual legs and I had the sudden need to sprint and run and skip to my heart's content, well just as long as that heart didn't continue to get attacked. I sprinted through the woods, marveling at how much faster I was and how much more my senses could pick up from the nature around me.

As much as I just wanted to wander aimlessly through the forest, I had a place I wanted to go to, and a person I wanted to see. With my hope to see someone and my hope that my heart wouldn't burst on the way, I continued running at an abnormally fast pace to Christa's house.

* * *

_Christa_

Dominic is missing; it was all I could think about.

Jericho had come out of the battle fine. A few scratches here and there, but not nearly as bad as his opponent, who had retreated from the meadow not even running but limping away. Sage had come out the same as Jericho, and although Ellie went missing for a while, she came back the next day. I almost cried when I saw her because I thought she went missing too, but it turns out that she had been "kidnapped" by Embry and brought to the heart of the "beasts" land.

But Dominic had not returned, and no one knew where he went. He could have been taken by Sam (Ellie had revealed to me that that was _her _name), had gotten lost in the woods, or Dominic had surrendered. No one knows anything and nothing is for certain.

"Christa," Jericho said, taking a seat beside me on the couch in the basement. "I know that you're blaming yourself again."

"Blaming myself?" I asked, pretending to be clueless to what he was talking about.

"Dominic was strong, but he wasn't the best wizard around," Jericho said, "And you had to be strong and fight Sam, for us. You couldn't have protected him."

"I could have kept an eye on him, I could have kept an eye on all of you. I just let my anger get to me and I got too caught up with fighting Sam. Besides, Dominic could need our help. He could be lost or he could be captured! Jericho, I-" My voice could only be even for so long. I felt the damn start to crack and let water burst through the little fissures known as my weaknesses. Somehow I knew the response from Jericho before I even heard it.

"Christa, I'm really sorry. I know you two were friends and that he could have been like family to us, but Christa I think Dominic is dead. I can't tell you how sorry I am."

The damn had burst. It had been decimated and annihilated to oblivion with the realization of Jericho's words. I had nothing to support me from my internal breakdown and I collapsed into Jericho's arms. Jericho did nothing to push me away; instead he slowly wrapped his arms around me and rubbed my back soothingly with his hand.

"Shhh, calm down Christa. It's okay. I promise I won't let you get killed like Dominic. I'll protect you, I promise," Jericho cooed into my ear.

"Thanks Dominic, but you know that's not what I'm concerned about," I whispered from the waterfall going down my face.

"Nothing can bring him back Christa, not even killing Sam will let you see him one more time. We just got to hold strong and keep fighting for Dominic. Please don't cry too much."

I couldn't reply. I grasped onto Jericho's shirt like a lifeline, like it would bring back stubborn, confident, and cheerful Dominic.

Now I hadn't known the boy for a long time, but I had known him long enough to call him something more than an acquaintance or just a person. Yes I knew the boy was a bit bossy and paranoid, especially with this past battle, but only cause he felt that Sam, his "creator," had cheated him out of his old life. Even if his old life was falling apart with his self-destructive, single mother, Dominic was never able to see her again, nor did he ever get to find out why Sam lied to him and tricked him into working for Victor.

"Dominic didn't die in vain, he just died a life unfulfilled. He never got to understand why he was changed by Sam and why Sam worked with Victor," I mumbled.

"Which is why we'll keep fighting, so that we can find those answers for him. I promise," Jericho whispered back. I let go of his shirt and leaned up so I could look at him directly without having my face buried in his shirt.

"You're making a lot of promises today," I commented, "How are you sure I can live up to them for Dominic? Are you just telling me empty promises? You already told me you think Dominic is dead, why don't you just tell me now what you really think I'm going to do?"

Jericho gave a one-sided smile and shook his head at me like I was a fretting child who was babbling about the monsters in the closet. "Christa, I'd rather give you the empty promises than the current facts because I know that you have the confidence to turn those empty promises into the truth. I have more faith in you than I do in anyone else, so I'm going to stay with you until you realize how strong you are."

"So when you think I'm strong enough you'll leave me."

"No, not at all."

"So when will you leave me?"

"Depends."

"Depends on what?"

Jericho says nothing; he just stares at me with those crystal blue eyes that shame the sky with their color. They are so clear and glossy that I can see my reflection in them. Somehow I feel like there's something special about the me trapped in his eyes; she has a light aurora around her that I can't see around myself. Was this the confidence Jericho was just talking about, or is it something else? I get no response from Jericho, or at least not in the form of words.

One second I'm focused on Jericho's eyes, the next second I'm focused on how soft his lips are, lips that are crushed against my own. I think about how quick his hands moved from his sides to having one on my back and another tangling my curls and forcing my lips to press against his.

My lips are still as Jericho's try to dance against mine. Even though he says no words, he makes his emotions very evident. The way he tries to clutch me against him is his way of trying to force a reaction out of me. There's a feeling to the way he kisses me. I don't know the feeling but I can make up little pieces of it: need, longing, desperation, care, relief, want, joy…

…Is this love?

I never found out. A sound like a crash came from the first floor and I jumped out of Jericho's embrace. It came a second time, then a third time, then again and again until I realized that someone was banging on the door. Jericho stared at me confused as to what I was going to do next. I had never officially kissed him back and maybe he wasn't focused on the ferocious banging on the door like I was.

"I'll go see who that is," I mumbled quietly before scurrying away from Jericho and up the basement steps. I jogged to the door, not even contemplating once that some stranger could be banging on the door. When I opened the door, I wish it had been some random stranger.

There standing before me, was a teenage girl (who looked eerily similar to someone I knew) with her face splattered in some disgusting-looking black material.

* * *

_Rensemee_

I bang on Christa's door with a great force, completely forgetting that with my new strength I could break down this door by accident with just one swing. With my sensitive hearing, I pick up the sound of someone scurrying to the door from the inside. The door opens and, lo and behold, is my wonderful aunt.

"Christa!" I shout joyfully and give her a large hug, "I'm so glad you're home! I have so much to tell you! It all started when I woke up all alone-"

But I never get to finish. Christa-who didn't even seem to hear me-shoves me off her and unto the concrete sidewalk in front of her house. I fall flat again like I did going down the stairs and I feel my heart twitch with the almost possibility of being assaulted again. Christa glares at me from the doorframe. I furrow my brows confused and my smile falters. Before I can utter her name Christa has pounced from her house unto me.

She kicks and punches at me, but I refuse to fight back. I try pushing her off of me but she's strong and I can't find the strength to try and hurt her. She continues beating me to the pulp and I try to scream her name as a plea but my screams are over-powered by her loud growling words.

"Go away you ugly piece of crap! Don't think you can just attack me and get away with it! I'll show you! I'll KILL you!"

"Christa!" Someone shouted from behind. Before I can see who it is, Christa is being pulled off of me. I can feel the sting of fresh wounds from Christa, however I can tell that they'll be disappearing soon.

When I look up. I see Christa struggling to attack me as Jericho wrenches her arms behind her back and tries to hold her away from me. Jericho looks at me for the first time and winces in fear and disgust at me.

"What are you?" He asks; I can't tell if his voice shows more terror than it does repulsion.

"She attacked me! Let me go!" Christa shrieked. She looked at me like I was a savage animal while she was kicking and screaming in Jericho's arms.

"I wasn't attacking you. I was trying to hug you and then you attacked me," I stated loudly. I don't know why but Christa suddenly stopped her tantrum and paused to give me a long glance.

"That voice…," Christa whispered, "You sound so…familiar. Who are you?"

I flashed a relieved smile. "It's me, Nessie!"

"Nessie…?" Christa cocked her head as if she was trying to see past my new shell to the old Renesmee that lurked somewhere beneath.

"You're lying!" Jericho shouted, a little more disgust than fear could be detected within his voice and eyes. Despite his words, Christa remained unfazed as she still gazed at me with confusion, and maybe with a little interest.

"What happened to you?" Christa whispered. I tried to reach out for her, only to realize that my hands were still covered with my dried venom tears, and also must be my face (which is why I must have come off as a monster to her with the strange venom marks wiped across my face).

"What happened to the real you?" Christa asked, a little bit louder than a whisper. Of course my heart being as uncanny as it is decided that now was a good time to get one of my mini strokes again. I collapsed to the ground with a shout and a thud and laid defenseless as my heart let itself be played with by thousands of little knives again. I looked up at Christa as the knives retreated from my heart. I gave Christa the most honest and absolute answer I knew right now:

"She's gone."

* * *

**Author's Note: I really hate it when I don't get to include as much into the chapter as I was planning (which by the way happens all the time). I was planning on going into the reasons why Nessie's body is reacting the way it is to the venom, however it's a big, creepy biology lesson that's going to take up 5,000 words so I'll save that for the next chapter.**

**HEY EVERYBODY! READ THIS BECAUSE IT CONCERNS YOU! Now that I have your attention (Sorry I type in all caps to get the attention of the readers that don't read my notes) I'm getting to the climax of this story, which means that the conclusion is also coming soon. However, I can take the rest of this story into two directions: 1) I can make one last sequel to this story or 2) I can end the story with this current book. I was going to write a sequel but I didn't want to continue with the story if you guys are already bored of it so just type your opinion in the review box or just private message me to let me know. Please try and get me a response within the next one to two chapters. Thanks!**

**Disclaimer: *****Pulls Twilight book off shelf and reads front cover***** By Stephenie Meyer, eh? Oh well at least I own this story. **

**Well it starts with an R and ends in an EVIEW so take a wild guess to what I want you to do.**

**-J.J.**


	20. Bad Blood

Chapter 20: Bad Blood

_Narrator_

"What's that on your face?" Jericho asked, still not believing that the beautiful girl with venom tear stains on her hands and face was Nessie.

Nessie looked down as she contemplated the truth. What was she to do? Her true identity had been concealed from Christa's friends for so long. Should she reveal the truth and hope that Jericho wouldn't attack her because she was an abomination or should she lie. Would Christa bump in and save her with some excuse before she could say anything?

"It's…uh…" Nessie was tongue-tied. Whether or not she told Jericho what she really was, she still had to get him to believe she was Nessie. "It's me, Jericho. It's Nessie. You have to believe me, please."

"I'm not stupid," Jericho said, slightly aggravated. "You're not Nessie! You two look nothing alike! Who are you and what's on your face?!"

"Jericho…" Christa whispered, deciding now would be a good time to bump into the conversation. "It's Nessie, okay, you just have to trust me on this one." Christa was slouched in Jericho's arms but now she stood up and turned sideways to look him in the eye.

"How is it Nessie? Holy crap Christa, can you not recognize your own niece when you see her?" Jericho was now yelling at the woman that he might have tried to confess his love for a moment ago.

"It is her," Christa replied softly.

"Well what happened to her then?"

"I'm going to find out." Christa shot a curious and unsure glance at Nessie before looking back at Jericho. "Just…um…go back into the basement and I'll see you in a bit, okay?"

"Christa…who is she?"

Then surprising Nessie, Jericho, the lamppost, and even herself, Christa gave a peck on Jericho's cheek- and not the quick as a gunshot kisses, I'm talking about slow, and soft as dove feathers kiss. Christa gave Jericho next a soft smile that captured Jericho's eyes and maybe even heart in an instant.

"Just trust me on this one, okay sweetie?" Christa said softly. Jericho was quiet for a moment as he gave Christa a look of mixed feelings. Jericho pressed his lips into a thin line and then gently touched his lips against Christa's forehead before turning around and slowly jogging back into the house and subsequently into the basement.

Christa slowly turned around to look at her niece-if she could still call her that. Christa gave Nessie a quick look over for about the zillionth time that day and slowly moved over to her.

"I'm so glad you're home. Christa…I'm so confused and no one was at my home to help. I think I might just be growing, but maybe I'm also changing into something else entirely. Anyway, I need your help," Nessie said in a panicked and quick tone.

"Okay," Christa replied, "One thing at a time. What happened to you? When did _this,_" Christa paused and waved a hand at Nessie's new body, "When did this start?"

"Well," Nessie scratched at her cheek nervously, unaware that she was also scratching off some of the dried venom on her cheek too. "It was at the battle. _She _had put some sort of petrifying spell on me and then threw some sort of fireball at me and I got blown away into the forest. I couldn't move, see, speak but I could still feel and hear."

Christa felt stunned; how could she forget that Nessie, her niece, could have also gone missing? To Christa, it looked like Nessie had ran off once Sam came too near, but she had honestly never seen what might have been Nessie flying through the air. A light blush that spelled out embarrassment and guiltiness bloomed across Christa's cheek as Nessie continued with her story.

"Then I landed into a tree-which yes was a bit painful-and I stayed there for a while before I was rescued. I didn't know who rescued me though because I had my eyes closed so I couldn't see the person and the person never revealed me their name. She carried me- I'm pretty sure it was a she-somewhere else in the forest and I fell asleep. When I woke up she wasn't carrying me anymore and she was gone. However some other people did come."

Christa watched confused as Nessie's venom-stained face contorted into a look of gloom and how Nessie's genial smile drooped into an upside-down U. Nessie paused with her story to give out a heavy huff of air.

"Do you know the people who found you?" Christa asked timidly; Christa could tell that the story was getting a bit sensitive for Nessie and she didn't want to say the thing to burst Nessie into tears.

"Yes I did know them, they were my family," Nessie said in a whisper-like voice. Christa's brows furrowed in confusion and Nessie decided to continue on with the story. "Aunt Alice, Aunt Rosie, and Uncle Emmett had found me sleeping in the woods I guess. I was still paralyzed so I couldn't talk to them or move. Then my parents came and my mom checked me for a heartbeat, and I don't know why but she said that my heartbeat was really faint and that I was dying. Which was weird to me because even though I was seriously injured I didn't feel like I was dying. My parents were desperate, Aunt Alice begged them not to but they decided that it was better to try and change me than to let me die. So my parents bit me."

Nessie took another gloomy pause however Christa was too caught up in the story to be left hanging now. "So what happened next?" Christa asked inquisitively, but still carefully.

"Well you could say the venom knocked me out of my paralyzation," Nessie muttered, "I went into unconsciousness again and I woke up not too long ago in my house, however there were two things different: 1) no one was home which was why I decided to come here; and 2) I had grown a couple years over a couple of nights." Nessie gave a small wave to gesture her knew height and other physical changes.

"And now what?" Christa asked.

"Well," Nessie flashed Christa a hopeful smile, "My entire family is missing and I don't know what the venom is doing to me so I was wondering if you knew some magical answers that could help me."

Christa paused. "Well…" Christa stuttered, "I don't know if I can change you back to your previous self, but I might be able to help with your venom dilemma."

"You really think you can?" Nessie asked with an optimistic smile.

Christa looked at Nessie like she was the Mona Lisa with a giant tear. Even so, Christa thought she could definitely tape that tear up together to an extant. Christa returned Nessie's hopeful smile, "I think I might be able to do something."

* * *

After spending thirty minutes in the bathroom cleaning Nessie's face and hands (trust me venom isn't like paint that can be rubbed off in a few seconds, Christa needed to break in some potions to get that mess off of Nessie), Nessie headed to the front living room while Christa went into the basement to get some "special" tools. Christa leisurely walked passed Jericho-who still looked a bit shaken-while he was sitting on one of the basement couches. Christa gave him a nod of acknowledgement and told him to wait a little longer.

"Alright," Christa said as she walked up the stairs to the first floor, "I think I got some things that might help." Christa walked in to the living room and paused to look at Nessie momentarily. With the venom cleared off her face, Christa can no longer deny that the possibly-seventeen-year-old girl is her niece, or at least some long-lost closely related relative and yes it could be considered logical if there was also a possibility that Nessie had aged three years in two nights. Talk about that "they grow up so fast" saying.

"What do you have?" The new Nessie asked.

"Um…they're kind of witch tools," Christa replied. Christa laid several odd-looking objects on the small coffee table from a large messenger bag she had been carrying. Two things that caught Nessie's eye was a kaleidoscope figure that had the body tube and adjustment knob of a microscope and another item that's figure reminded her too much of a needle, maybe it actually was a needle. Nessie cringed involuntarily.

"So I figured the best place to start would be from the inside of your body since you don't seem to have any clues or past experiences with this…_condition _of yours."

"Is that a needle?" Nessie pointed to the object that looked like said item with a shaky finger.

"Yes, actually if you don't mind I would like to take a blood sample first," Christa said, hesitant of Nessie's reaction. Nessie paused shyly for a second before deciding to trust Christa and stuck her arm out for Christa to inject the needle into. Christa gave a slight cringe when she noticed that Nessie's veins were almost the color of black.

"By the way," Christa said, "The reason the needle looks a bit different from others is because it's meant to penetrate through thick skin if you know what I mean." Christa flashed Nessie a one-sided grin that Nessie slowly returned.

Christa injected the needle into the vein in Nessie's arm and then pulled out just as fast as a bolt of lightening hitting the ground. Christa captured a small drop of Nessie's blood within the needle and gently laid the needle on the coffee table. Next, she quickly pulled out the bottom lens of the kaleidoscope-microscope, only to reveal that there were two lenses. Christa pulled the two apart, leaving one on the coffee table and the other in her hand.

Christa picked up the needle again and pushed the small drop of Nessie's blood onto the lens with the handle of the needle and then placed the second lens on top of the other before attaching the double-lens at the bottom of the kaleidoscope-microscope. Christa looked into the kaleid-microscope and nearly pulled away as soon as she did from the sight of Nessie's magnified blood sample.

"What's wrong?" Nessie asked.

"Well there's definitely venom still in your blood stream," Christa said with a loud gulp at the end of the sentence.

"So what's so scary about it?"

"Well, it's a long story. Under normal circumstances, the venom is similar to a virus, that's why venom is so easy to study. However, the "venom virus" attacks all the cells in the body and instead of the cell bursting after it has been attacked by the virus, it turns into a "venom cell" and this process continues until all the human cells have been changed into venom cells, other known as vampire cells. What should be happening to you is your blood cells should be turning into vampire cells once the venom virus has infected them, however something very different seems to be happening."

"Is it a bad thing?" Nessie would sweat from nervousness right now if she weren't so worried that she would sweat out venom.

"Well I can't see where the virus is going so I can't say for sure what's happening exactly." Christa took a tentative look into the kaleid-microscope again; she studied for a couple more minutes with different emotions of concentration and wonder crossing her face before finally moving her face away with a blank expression.

"Well, Nessie," Christa said with a large gulp, "I've got good news and bad news. Which do you want to hear first?"

"Good news."

"Good, it'll make better sense if I tell you the good news first. Well not one of your blood cells is being infected by the virus at all. In fact, it seems the exact opposite is happening: instead of your blood cells being infected, they're…well actually it's difficult to say but it looks like your blood cells are absorbingthevenom virus particles once the virus latches onto them. In other words, your cells are _eating_ the virus. Not only do they eat them but they seem unaffected after they eat them and I assume that your body is using the venom virus for energy."

"That's great!" Nessie said, "So what could be the bad news?"

"Well Nessie have you looked in the mirror recently?" Christa asked incredulous. "We eat food to grow. They're so many venom viruses in your blood stream that your blood cells just keep eating them and eating them; and when the cells eat the virus they begin to grow, slowly but significantly fast enough to notice that they're expanding in size."

"So I'm growing rapidly because my blood cells are eating the venom?" Nessie asked.

"Well lets not forget that the virus can infect every cell in the body and your blood veins are great transportation for the venom to be carried anywhere in your body. So it's safe to assume that all your cells are munching down on the little venom virus like it's lunch."

"For how long?"

"What do you mean for how long?"

"How long am I going to keep growing?"

Christa pressed her mouth into a firm, thin line and gave a slight downward tilt at the corners of her lips. "I honestly don't know," Christa mumbled.

"Well can you guess how old I will be physically when I stop growing?" Nessie asked, you could tell she was getting a bit frantic.

"No…but I'm guessing maybe another couple decades or so," Christa mumbled again. A wide-eyed and jaw dropped expression started to stretch itself on Nessie's face and Christa could already tell that Nessie was a second away from fainting on the ground.

"A couple decades?!" Nessie screeched and Christa could feel the shout reverberate through the kaleid-microscope she was holding.

"Look Nessie-"

"How can I age so much I've only grown about a year a day since I was bitten!" Little drops of venom tears were starting to pop out of Nessie's tear ducts again and Christa frantically took a tissue from the tissue box on the coffee table and tried her best to quickly wipe them away.

"That's exactly my point," Christa said while continuing to wipe away the new tears with more tissues. "Your parents injected a lot of venom into you and it could take thirty days or longer before your body has consumed all the venom."

"But once my parents and family see that I'm growing older than them they're going to want to bite me again to stop me from aging, but I'll only keep aging! I'm doomed!" The tears were coming out faster than Christa's hands could move to wipe them away and Christa had to shush and hug the girl for a few minutes before Nessie calmed down a bit.

"I figured I would have to use it eventually," Christa mumbled as she still had an arm wrapped around her niece's shoulder.

"Use what?" Nessie asked, her voice both curious and hopeful.

"Well," Chrsta said, "I figured that we would need to get rid of the venom in your body." Christa let go of Nessie and got up to walk into the kitchen. Nessie didn't go with her and instead she listened to the clinging of glasses and quick shuffling of feet coming from the kitchen. Before Nessie could even question what Christa was doing, Christa was already back with a plastic container full of a light scarlet-colored liquid and a small plastic cup.

"What's that?" Nessie asked as Christa sat next to her with the contents still in her hands.

"Something I always keep on me for emergencies. I may be a strong a witch, but it's extremely difficult for me to find a potion that can destroy vampire venom without destroying the infected person. However I keep this potion near me at all times; this potion can flush out anything in your body, even venom. There's just one complication though."

"I don't care I'll take it," Nessie said with enthusiasm and tried to snatch the whole gallon of potion out of Christa's hand and chug it all down but Christa was clutching the container to her chest before Nessie could attempt it.

"You're going to need to know this," Christa said with a deep seriousness and Nessie stopped herself from trying to rip the container out of Christa's arms.

"What do I need to know?"

"The way the potion works is that it travels through your body on it's own and it'll collect all the venom that's infecting you. The potion sends the venom with itself into your stomach, however venom can't be digested and you know what happens to food that isn't digested, right?"

Nessie squinted her eyebrows in concentration as she tried to figure out an answer from anything than the obvious one. Christa gave her an awkward smile and Nessie gave a sigh as she figured that it was the obvious answer. "This potion is going to make me vomit out the venom, isn't it?"

Nessie could feel a sharp twitch in her heart, but she couldn't tell if it was just from having another small heart attack or if she was suddenly terrified of that potion entering down her mouth when she knew what was was going to come back up.

* * *

After thirty minutes of Nessie giving herself a pep talk and Christa assuring her that this was the best solution she had, Nessie managed to chug down a whole a cup of the "cure." Afterwards, they both decided that the next best step was for Nessie to go back home and wait for her family to come home. If they already returned home then Nessie would say that she was looking for them and when she started vomiting up the venom her family would just assume that it was just Nessie's body's natural reaction to the venom.

Christa opened her front door and looked around to see if anyone was watching them-because just in case-before letting Nessie out the door. Christa gave Nessie a tight hug (she was almost startled when she realized that Nessie's head now went over her shoulder when she hugged her. Christa mentally noted that Nessie was about two or three inches shorter than her now) and wished her the best of luck and health and made Nessie promise to her that she would come to her if she had any problems with the potion than what was expected. Nessie gave a short farewell before skipping off into the woods.

Nessie wasn't as anxious to get home as she should have been, maybe because she didn't know how her parents would react once they realized she wasn't a vampire, if they hadn't already. And then she would also have to explain what she was doing in the woods the night they found her. Nessie herself wasn't too mad at her parents for biting her, probably because she understood that they didn't know the truth and they tried to act out of love for their only child. However every time Nessie was attacked by the venom going through her heart, she wondered if it was even worth it if they didn't even know what was going to happen to her

Speaking of Nessie's "heart attacks," about ten minutes into Nessie's stroll to home she felt the first knife of an attack go in and was about to collapse to the ground until she realized that no other knives pursued her heart after the first one. Nessie smiled to herself when she realized that the potion must have already been working. However, heart attacks wouldn't be the only thing to surprise Nessie that day.

Nessie was almost halfway home when she heard the rustling. Nessie's new and improved hearing heard something rustling in the bushes behind her. At first, Nessie brushed it off as a squirrel or some other woodland creature, but then the rustling turned into footsteps-heavy footsteps that seemed to be following her. Nessie quickened her pace but the creature caught up to her tempo a millisecond later. Nessie ran, but the creature continued to pursue her and Nessie was just a breath away from screaming.

"Nessie!"

At the sound of someone familiar calling her name from behind, Nessie stopped dead in her tracks. She swiveled her head around and a few feet away from her was lo and behold her best friend, Jacob Black.

"Jake!" Nessie gushed and ran into him for a hug, however Jake pulled Nessie back by her shoulders and gave her new figure an intent but confused stare.

"You grew," Jacob said with the same confusion in his eyes and Nessie's face grew red as she searched her head for a temporary explanation. However Jacob spoke before Nessie could stutter anything out.

"Never mind that, I'm taking you back to my pack's house," Jacob said and grabbed Nessie's hand firmly and started leading her in the opposite direction of the one she was originally going in.

"Actually I think I should go back to my house," Nessie suggested but Jacob acted like he hadn't even heard her.

"I'm actually really glad that I found you here," Jacob said genuinely happy, "What are you doing out here anyway? You know what, never mind. Just never mind everything. I figured that your parents would have brought you back to their cottage after they bit you and I was worried that I would have to try and find a way to get you out of there past your family."

"Jake!" Nessie shouted in shock and Jacob turned to look at her worriedly while still dragging her away.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

Nessie mumbled suspiciously in response, "How did you know that my parents bit me?"

* * *

**Author's Note: Gosh maybe I should stop with the cliffhangers…in a couple more chapters. Anyway I'm sorry if this chapter is getting to you a little bit later than usual I had company today and was temporarily distracted from posting this chapter. Also yes, you may have noticed that I've started to write in third person. Honestly I think I write better and faster in third person so rarely will you see another chapter from the point of view of one of the characters. As usual, stay tuned for the next chapter and I'm truly sorry for any grammar mistakes.**

**Disclaimer: I'm pretty sure Stephenie Meyer's username on fanfiction isn't JumpingJoy22. **

**You know what would really make my day? Having my loyal readers type something in that box below and pressing enter.**

**-J.J.**


	21. My Wolf

Chapter 21: My Wolf

Ellie rocked back and forth in the old, creaky wooden chair at the equally old, wooden table while she simultaneously tapped her fingers against the side of the empty coffee mug she was holding. She looked around the living room for the umpteenth time of what once belonged to Mrs. Clearwater before she gave it to the beasts. Or at least that was what Ellie was told, Ellie still had the paranoid sensation that they probably killed her and used her empty skin as carpeting for one of the rooms of the house.

As she waited for Embry to come back from the heaven-knows-what assignment he's doing, she let her eyes get lost in the floral patterns glazed on the fine china in the cabinet across from her right behind the table. Mrs. Clearwater or "Mrs. Clearwater" still hadn't packed away her precious utensils and the sorts from the cabinet. One particular teapot had three yellow lilies spiraling up the spout. Three, the same number of days that Ellie was kept under Embry's "eagle eye."

So maybe Embry didn't exactly believe Ellie when she said an animal, or whatever she had said at the time, had chased her after. And maybe Embry was extremely overprotective over girls he had barely known for a month. And maybe Embry had started visiting her everyday until she cracked about what had really happened in the woods the day he had saved her. And maybe simultaneously Ellie was questioning the fact that Embry was just stargazing in the woods at night when he found her. Well more like interrogating than questioning because that's just how Ellie is.

Looking down from the china lilies, Ellie half-mindedly picked at the ace bandage wrapped around her right arm from wrist to shoulder. An identical bandage was wrapped around her left arm. After had had taken her home to the beasts' base after he had found her, Embry had shown off his mediocre medical skills to her. He had put twenty band-aids on each arm to cover the red scratches and then thought it would be a good idea to put an ace bandage around the perimeter of each arm to keep the band-aids from falling off her arms. It was mediocre, but Ellie gave him some credit for being creative.

And of course the whole time, Ellie was avoiding looking into Embry's eyes for fear that she would be hypnotized again. Ellie still couldn't shake out the thoughts she had about Embry when he held her out of her head.

"_Why do you stare at me like that?" _Ellie had asked when she caught Embry staring at her while bandaging her arm. She was hoping to get some sort of mischievous answer out of him to prove it was hypnotism, but as usual Embry could bear no sin to her.

"_I like the way you look_," Embry had said, _"You know I've gotta thing for blond hair and freckles. I suppose that's one reason you'll find me one day chasing after you in the woods."_

And yes Ellie was caught off guard by his statement. And no she did not blush at his statement, or at least she denies that she did.

Coming back to the present, Ellie felt a buzz in the pocket of her jeans and she instinctively reached into her back pocket to retrieve her phone. Ellie then pressed the answer button and lifted the phone to her ear to hear a-hopefully-happy voice greet her. However she hadn't even glanced at the caller ID.

"Hey Ellie!" Sage said in her usual joyful tone (a tone that had disappeared not too long ago when Sage and you-know-who got into a fight). Ellie slightly twitched her lips into a smile to know that Sage and her were finally on a good basis again. Sage and her had gone into a stage where they didn't look, talk, or think of each other for the days leading up to their most recent battle in the woods. Sage kept herself shut up in her bedroom and Ellie went anywhere else. However, after Embry had taken Ellie home after bandaging her up, Sage had become nice to her. Heck, they even started socializing with each other again.

"Hey Sage! What can I do for you?" Ellie replied in a voice that hopefully sounded just as joyful.

"Are you at the boys' house?" Sage referred to the house that was shared between Embry and his friends *cough* pack members *cough* as the boys' house (despite the one female resident that lived with them) while Ellie still referred to the house as the beasts' house, even though it still aggravated Sage to hear Ellie calm them that.

"Yah, I've been for nearly forever, what are you doing calling me now?"

"I want to come over to." Ellie paused when she heard that Sage's voice was still light and happy, even when Sage was considering coming to the house that also inhabited-

"Seth's not here," Ellie said flatly, trying not to show her disgust for the name. Ellie wouldn't even have bothered coming here if not for the fact that Embry practically had her chained here while he played his "investigation" for the search of Ellie's deadly night chaser.

"Where is he?" Sage asked, and Ellie frowned when she heard the disappointment in her voice.

"I don't know. No one here is home."

"So why are you in there by yourself?"

"I'm just waiting for Embry to return from…work." Ellie bit her lip in hope that Sage would be oblivious to the lie.

"Is Seth coming home with him?" Sage asked, though I'm not sure if she even cared if Ellie lied or not.

"I don't know. Probably not."

"Great! I'll be over there in fifteen minutes." Maybe Sage was just oblivious to whatever Ellie said today in general…

"By the way, tell me if you see anything strange in the woods, like a giant animal or an illusion-like figure!" Sage said nonchalantly. Ellie rolled her eyes, half tempted to ask what she had for breakfast this morning.

"Sure, whatever you want, honey," Ellie said and Sage responded by hanging up and she immediately frowned. Just because they didn't talk for a couple of days didn't mean Ellie didn't know what Sage was doing. Ellie heard the mumblings, the little whispers Sage said to herself about a certain Native American tribe's legends, myths, and fairytales. Ellie might have started talking to her again anyway just to make sure she didn't drive herself insane.

"Who was that?" Said a voice, and yes this voice did belong to the beast that might as well have been Ellie's shadow.

The voice from right behind her made Ellie's heart jump into her throat and fall back down. Ellie swerved forcefully in her chair-almost falling out of her chair while doing so-and stared at Embry with a dumbfounded expression as her lip trembled in confusion and slight fear. Embry seemed to ignore Ellie's surprised look and munched down on a red apple that was resting in the palm of his hand.

"When did you get the apple?" Ellie asked exasperated.

"Just now," Embry replied, unfazed by Ellie's tone of voice.

"When did you get here?"

"Just now," Embry paused to take another munch of his apple and then spoke once he had swallowed the piece of apple in his mouth, "So who were you talking to?"

Ellie blinked in surprise. You know for a guy that mutated into a giant wolf, he seemed to move around like ghost. Ellie mumbled, "I was just talking to Sage-"

"Can I ask you something?" Embry asked, nonchalantly cutting off Ellie.

"What?" Ellie was getting more confused and irritated by the moment.

"What's your relationship with Christa?" Embry bit is lip.

"What do you mea-"

"You know, I know that you guys are friends, but are you also like coworkers or something? Pen pals? Distantly related cousins? How did you come to meet her?" Embry munched on his apple slowly, as if anticipating some big detail.

Ellie calmed down and shrugged. "We used to be neighbors, then friends, that's all."

Embry didn't seem quit content with that answer and he squinted confusedly at her. "But didn't Christa end up going to that asylum or whatever?" He asked and Ellie frowned.

"It wasn't an asylum, and we went to go to visit Christa in her time in the mental facility." Ellie hoped Embry stopped with the meaningless interrogation but she underestimated the urgency that drove Embry to ask these questions.

"Who do you by 'we?'" _Munch. _Embry had chomped off the layer of the apple's skin in one minute.

"I mean me, my sister, and my mother."

Genuinely observant, Embry said, "You never told me you had a sister."

"Well-"

_Ding dong. Diiiiiiiiing dong._

The recognizable sound of a doorbell cut off Ellie from what she was about to say, though it might as well have been a relief considering Ellie didn't actually know what to say.

Then Ellie froze with realization. That was probably Sage at the door, and Ellie hadn't even told Embry that she was coming! Though had to be a bit surprised, that took much shorter than fifteen minutes. Sage must be really anxious to see Seth or she just spontaneously gained super speed, hopefully the latter.

"I'll get that," Embry mumbled, and before Ellie could protest, he was already halfway to the door. Ellie clutched to the back of her seat in anticipation and hoped Embry would send Sage back home. To Ellie's surprise though, it wasn't even Sage at the door.

"Hey Jake! Hey…Nessie?" Embry said cheerfully, however his sentence decrescendoed into confusion. Ellie hardly noticed how he phrased that sentence. Why was Nessie here? What was she doing with the alpha beast?

"Yes it's Nessie. You can let her in," said a husky voice that Ellie recognized as Jake.

Ellie took a moment to pause at the emotion between Embry and Jake. She noticed that Embry had not recognized Nessie, but why? Ellie didn't exactly know what happened to Nessie during the battle but most of the group had said they'd seen her run off, but in all honesty I don't think they were quiet sure. So what did happen to Nessie to make her unrecognizable?

Ellie played with the possibilities in her head and they all seemed to lead to the chilling idea that Nessie had gotten kidnapped by Sam or one of her minions and beaten so severely that the cuts and bruises masked her whole body. But if Nessie was abused beyond repair or recognition, why is it that Embry only seemed confused and not worried or frightened.

At the door stood the girl who was most likely the only one more confused than anyone else: Nessie. On the way over Jacob hadn't given her a single detail to how he knew she was bitten or where her family was. However, from bits and pieces that Nessie caught Jacob mumbling to himself, she caught that there was a battle that involved the wolves, and maybe also her family. But that confused Nessie, there were no potential threats harming either of the parties, so what in the world could they be fighting?

Jacob had promised to tell Nessie what was going on when he brought her home, and boy was she going to start demanding answers the second she entered that doorway. Now if only Embry would stop gawking at her like she was a ghost in front of the door she could actually get some interrogating done.

"I see you've…changed," Embry mumbled with a voice that was overly monotone.

"Yah," I said curtly, trying to avoid going into the subject with Embry before Jacob.

"Are you sure this is her?" Embry whispered to Jacob, momentarily ignoring my presence.

Jacob turned slightly to look at me with a stare thats intensity would put the sun's rays to shame. A deep, thoughtful glance that was a mixture of sureness, confidence, and a bit speculation that only lasted about a few seconds long. Jacob quickly turned back to speak to Embry.

"Yes I'm sure it's her," Jacob said, with his natural confident voice.

Amazing; one glance and he knew it was me. Even though I was maybe physically older than him it only took one stare for him to completely recognize me. How could he know by one look? Have we actually known each other for so long? Have we actually known each other so well? Was this a supernatural sense or a natural instinct that made him figure out it was me?

"Alright," Embry said, not even showing the slightest like he wanted to question Jacob's opinion, which astounded Nessie even more. Embry moved out of the doorway to let in Jacob and Nessie and Nessie was immediately greeted by a familiar voice.

"Nessie is that you?" Nessie heard Ellie say from a separate room somewhere. Nessie really wasn't familiar with the Clearwater house, but she thought she heard Ellie from the room at the end of the short corridor in front of her.

"Nessie?" Nessie heard Ellie say her name again, and somewhere in the mentioned room, Nessie heard a chair squeak. Nessie panicked and she ran behind Jacob so she could be hidden behind his large frame.

"Ellie don't come over here!" Embry shouted.

"Why?" Ellie asked.

"Because Nessie isn't here." Nessie and Jacob were visibly cringing at Embry's awful lying skills.

"But I heard you say Nessie."

"No…I said Jake." Just brilliant lying skills today Embry, keep up the good work.

"Then who else is there?" Ellie asked.

"Just Jacob! Hey Ellie just stay there I need to talk to Jacob alone." Embry quickly pushed Jacob and Nessie into the nearest room that Ellie wasn't in. Which happened to be the room just left of them. The door seemed to camouflage itself in the wall next to them so she didn't even notice there was a door until she had to go through it. What unnerved Nessie most was that the door was the size of a broom closet. But have no fear Nessie! Embry hasn't shoved the three of you into an extremely cramped broom closet, he's shoved the three of you in into extremely cramped bathroom!

Embry carefully closed the door to the bathroom while Jacob simultaneously flicked on the light switch. Nessie went to sit on the toilet to give Embry and Jacob more shoulder space. Then the trio breathed in a breath of air (which they really should salvage since they could lose air in this small space anytime) and waited to hear a sound from Ellie. When ten seconds had passed without a peep from Ellie they all simultaneously let out a sigh of relief.

"So you guys going to start talking or what?" Nessie asked immediately, remembering why she had even agreed to come here.

"Sure we'll start talking, how are you doing Nessie?" Embry said with a teasing smile.

"I'm serious. You people need to start telling me what's actually going on," Nessie said exasperated.

"About what?" Jacob asked politely.

"Oh I don't know, my whole family is missing, you're mumbling about some kind of battle, and you don't seem too keen on taking me back home, so I just thought you might know something," Nessie was specifically talking to Jacob at this point.

"You really want to know?" Jacob asked and he didn't even need to hear a word from Nessie to know what she wanted. Jacob sighed and spoke, "Alright, but you're definitely not going to like it."

"I don't care if I don't like it I just-"

"Nessie, the wolves, _all_ the wolves, and the Cullens are at war."

"But with who?" Nessie was on her breaking point of confusion.

"Nessie…it's so obvious…we're at war with each other."

And so that's how Nessie's opaque, glass wall of confusion was smashed by the hammer of truth. As the words sunk in, Nessie could feel tears trying to burst out of her eyes but she held them in knowing that it wasn't real tears trying to burst out. Nessie bit her bottom lip fiercely to prevent herself from thinking about crying.

"What are you fighting over?" Nessie sobbed out. Jacob pressed his lips into a thin line and tried to pet Nessie's loose curls softly to try and calm her down. Jacob was about to speak however Nessie spoke first, "Let me guess, that's obvious too?"

"We're fighting over you," Jacob murmured too nonchalant to actually make sense with the words. Nessie didn't reply. She just burst into tears and let Jacob and Embry see the black mess spill across her face, not knowing that it was the reason why they were fighting over her.

* * *

**Author's Note: So if you're wondering why I re-uploaded this chapter (I didn't change anything in the story don't worry), this is just an apology for the author's note from the original version. I recently went through some family complications (for obvious reasons I can't say them on a public website) and the heavy load that I got from school and sports was not helping and I was looking for a scapegoat to blame and I'm just so sorry that I stooped so low and blamed you guys. **

**Even though I don't get a lot of reviews I can still tell that you guys are loyal to me and keep up to date with my new chapters, and even though you may not be an audience that claps, you are an audience that stays until the play is done and that should be the only thing that matters. Once again I'm sorry about my previous outburst and I hope you guys can understand and forgive me. If you know anyone else reading this story tell them that I'm not mad, and more importantly, the story will go on!**

**Disclaimer: If I had a penny for every time someone called me Stephenie I would have a total of negative twenty-four cents.**

**-J.J.**


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